The Olympic Dream: Are Underwater Sports Closer Than We Think?

If you’re like me, you’ve been checking out the Winter Olympics in Milan this year, with wall-to-wall coverage that’s starting lots of conversations. When was the last time you heard someone heading home to watch the curling? It’s brilliant!

But of course, the Olympics represent possibly the most contentious issue in Underwater Sports. What would it take for a sport like Underwater Hockey to join the Summer Games roster? In my opinion, we may be closer than we think, but that we are not measuring success in the same way the Olympic Committee are. There is hope!

There are three questions they ask when picking a new sport for inclusion:

1. Is it fun to watch?

In the midst of all the ceremony and competition, it’s easy to forget that a huge part of the Olympics is public entertainment. For this year’s Winter Games, NBCUniversal in the US that they averaged 24 million viewers per day, with 11.2 billion minutes streamed thus far. Clearly, a primary objective is for viewers to have fun and stay glued to their screens.

And I think Underwater Sports would make a great addition to the portfolio! Sports like Underwater Rugby use the pool space in a whole new way - it’s tough, agile, and something viewers certainly haven’t seen before. Moreso, the recent additions of breakdancing and skateboarding seem to further confirm my theory - Cool is King!

Credit: Breno Barros (2021) via Wikimedia Commons (LINK)

2. Are there fans?

As such, we talk a lot about recruiting new Underwater Sports players. But recruiting fans is just as important! To be in the Olympics, it needs to be the easiest thing in the world to watch matches, hear athletes’ stories, and feel personally invested even if they never dipped a foot in the pool.

And we are making great strides! New filming technology, such as sliding camera rigs and 360 degree cameras, is helping to make matches more immediately understandable. This is critical for people to feel involved, made even better with some quality commentary. We need to be able to sit on the sofa, crack open a cold drink, and claim (as with all sports), that we could do better ourselves!

Credit: Chris Downer (2012) via Wikimedia Commons (LINK)

3. Are there influencers that captivate us?

It’s a curious one - alongside their traditional viewership scores, the Olympic Committee also shared that the athletes themselves generated over 1.2 billion interactions on social media, sharing the sum of over 1 billion followers between them on their personal accounts. Here, the line becomes blurred between athlete and influencer. Why? People love to hear unique sporting stories, especially on the world stage.

Much like everyone else, I’ve really been enjoying seeing Alysa Liu’s figure skating journey - she’s fun, full of character and a joy to watch on and off the ice. With the loosening of rules surrounding music, figure skating has been attempting to humanise itself and reach new audiences. As such, athletes as influencers can help bridge the emotional gap between the sport and spectators.

In underwater sports, this could be the key to reaching Olympic scale. Influencers like Lily Mae Pettifer (UWH, UK) and Hector Escobar (UWR, Colombia) are showing the world that high-level underwater sports can feel lively and exciting - maybe the Olympic Dream really is in sight!