So where do open water swimmers and triathletes hang out? What beaches and lakes do they frequent? How often are they in communication with other open water swimmers and triathletes? How much communication intermingling exists between open water swimmers and triathletes? Who do swimmers and triathletes call just before or just after they swim or compete? Do they call more on race day…or less? Do they use Facebook any differently than other athletes?
How could the community realistically and accurately answer these questions?
Theoretically, analysts could collect and analyze information from mobile phones owned by open water swimmers and triathletes to provide insights into where they move about and behave. It is a little Big Brotherish, but a data-gathering infrastructure exists in the form of mobile devices now that location tracking, search history, and links to social networks exist on most people’s cell phones.
Other areas, from commercial activities to epidemiology, use various datamining techniques to find answers to myriad questions from anonymized records made by millions of people in selected areas. It would be fascinating to find out more about how open water swimmers spend their day and if their whereabouts and communication patterns are any different from land-based endurance athletes.
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.