swim team dues 150/month.

again, a good explanation about why the pool of athletes that comprise competitive swimming is so small. It explains why Cullen Jones is only the 2nd African American on the US Swim Team in Olympic history.

Wowzers that is expensive.

Yes, it is dang expensive, and yes it may explain why there may be so few AA kids swimming.

But do you really believe the number of competitive swimmers is that small? Our town has about 80,000 people - relatively small by California standards. There are probably 500 other towns in America bigger than ours (a wild guess on my part).

There are probably at least 250 competivitive swimmers here on the three organized swim teams. These are kids that practice between 3 and 10 hours per week. How many other Olympic sports have 5 year olds that practice that much? Please limit your answer to your top 10 answers.

I don't think there is anyway that my parents could have afforded that. So everyone in the lower middle and class and poorer would be shut out. You look at the major sports--none of them are that exclusive. Things like golf, yes. But basketball, football, baseball, etc. are cheaper.

That's for 2 kids though, one of whom has the opportunity to be coached twice daily if he chooses to. That's a lot of bang for the buck imo when you divide that price by two. Our team offers need based "scholarships" so that if somebody without the means wants to swim they'll swim. I think a lot of teams do this.

Also, I think you may be underestimating the cost of baseball, football, basketball to some extent. Since so many kids specialize now there are a lot of club teams versus the school teams that you and I grew up on. The club teams and pop warner football etc.. really aren't very cheap by the time you pay for equipment and travel.

that's better. if lower middle class parents are really hyped about it, they will pay that. but poor parents still can't.

Try going to a private gym/club and see how many poor people are there. The YMCA we go to is 70/month for a family pass which includes the pool.

Not really. It only explains why it might be exclusive. No one is claiming it is a pool simialr to Bball, but it could easily be as alrge as any other major Olympic Sport. In our area, and this is not an exaggeration, swim team rivals youth soccer for particiaption numbers.

Golf: 200.00 (mainly used a corporate pass that I didnt pay for)
Golf Balls: 100.00
New Sand wedge: 150.00
New Driver: 400
Softball entrance fees for tournaments/seasons: 1400
New softball bat (Worth Resmondo): 329
New softball glove: 80
Nike Ipod runner: 30
Gym membership: 35 for whole family
Trip to doctor for torn hamstring from playing sports: $2700 (no insurance)


That about sums it up so far.

I think this goes to mikewaters's point.....that swimming is an elitist sport, not an everyday man's sport. I would expect swimming, maybe even some LAX to be popular amongst the youth in your neighborhood.

Walnut Creek isn't exactly a poor area. In fact, every time I go, I am overwhelmed by the outlandish displays of materialism. I can never get out of there fast enough and get back home to South County, where people don't care about that kind of stuff....

Mike's point keeps bouncing around, so it's hard ot tell what it is. He started of by saying the pool of particiapnts is very small. I don't think this is true, at least as compared to many other Olympic sports. Then he started talkking about it's economic exclusivity, which probabyl is true, but which may not have much to do wiht the number of particiapnts.

Jeeze make me feel badly won't you.

My bike is being acquired slowly

New bike: difficult to compute, as it's an exchange. Price unknown.
Jerseys: $500
Races: $2000.00 (cheaper than normal) okay maybe $3000.00
Food: $2000.00
Shoes: $280.00
Bike Stuff: $1000.00 (tires, tubes, maintenance, chains, wires, brakes, etc)


Really difficult to compute a lot of other stuff.

Swimsuits, two or three per year 60 bucks, socks, who knows, running trunks, new wetsuits,

In my worst year, we spent 30k getting ready but it's not that bad any more.