Dateline LEN: Professional water polo attendance in Europe down 35% from 2009 (1 year)
Dateline Balkan Countries: Youth participation in water polo down 28% since 2008 (2 years)
Dateline USA: 90% of USA Water Polo Members reside in 1 state
Dateline Hungary: Tamas Farago appeals for help in resuscitating the sports eroding popularity
As we wrap up the year 2010 and prepare to jump into 2011, I am taking a look at beginnings and endings by looking at water polo through the eyes of English naturalist Charles Darwin. To refresh your 20 year-old class in evolutionary biology, Charles Darwin is the father of modern evolution who established the concepts of natural selection, survival of the fittest, and extinction.
Through evolution, new varieties of organisms arise and thrive when they are able to find and exploit an ecological niche… species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in changing conditions or against superior competition. It is estimated that 99.9% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct.
As we end our first decade of the 21st century, many Darwinian indicators are appearing in the sport of water polo that should cause all of us to sit up, take notice, and begin to look for viable solutions before we follow the plight of the dodo and platypus.
Water Polo began as a demonstration of strength and swimming skill in late 19th century England where water sports and racing exhibitions were a staple of county fairs and festivals. In the world of no electricity and less free time, few people could swim and strength training was not commonplace… the combination of swimming and strength was rare and, as such, popular, as an exhibition of the unusual.
The popularity in the 19th century caused water polo to achieve its pinnacle of success as the first team sport introduced in the modern Olympic Games in 1900.
While inclusion in the Olympic Games is not a guarantee of sports popularity, it IS an incentive for children and parents to participate as they reach up to grasp the Olympic Dream. It is worldwide exposure via newsprint, television and radio and a plethora of national excitement every 4 years.
What has happened in less than a century? Are we in danger of following the plight of the bison (with all due respect to my good friend John Abdou), hunted to extinction within a few short years?
Lest we believe that sports in the modern day Olympics are safe, consider this list of sports ALSO popular in the 19th century and ALSO part of the modern Olympic games:
Roque (distinct from our favorite Commerce Roque) - By taking out the first and last letters from Croquet, the game of Roque was born. With similarities to Croquet like smacking a ball to get it through wickets, the game of Roque is different in that it is played on a rolled sand court with a permanent boundary and permanent wickets. It made its first and only appearance in the 1904 Olympics with the United States fielding the only team.
Rackets - The game of Rackets is played similar to squash in that it requires an indoor court. It gained its popularity in United Kingdom with its distinctively long racquet, 30.5 inches in length. It appeared first in the 1908 Olympics and disappeared thereafter.
Jeu de paume - This game was similar to lawn tennis but with a difference as it was played without racquets. Translated literally into ‘game of palm’, the game is about hitting the ball with your hand just like handball or volleyball. This was also played for the first and last time during the 1908 Olympics.
Pelote Basque - This is a game where the players hit a ball off two walls using their hands, a bat, or some sort of racquet. When it made its sole appearance in the Olympics, Spain was awarded the gold medal by beating France.
Croquet -This first appeared in 1900. Then it was removed from the Olympics altogether.
Polo - Usually referred as the sport of royalty, this game involves 4 players each team with each on horseback trying to drive a wooden or plastic ball into the opponent team’s net using a giant wooden mallet. It only appeared in five Summer Olympics: 1900, 1908, 1920, 1924, and 1936 with a total of only 8 competing teams.
Power Boating - This was only played during the 1908 Olympics. Only two competitors joined the 3 events with one competitor actually finishing each race.
Cricket - Cricket’s first and only appearance was in the 1900 Olympics. Because of its poor showing, Cricket was abolished as an Olympic sport.
Tug-Of-War -This was an Olympic sport in 6 Olympic Games (1900, 1904, 1906 (Intercalated Games), 1908, 1912, and 1920). The game, which is won where a team is able to pull the other team across the line, was part of the track and field athletics program.
Is Water Polo Poised at the Brink of Extinction?
The purpose of this article is to illustrate how sports can rise and fall in popularity and become extinct through many of the same mechanisms that influence a species.
Population genetics and demographic phenomena affect the evolution, and therefore the risk of extinction. The lack of resources to nourish these individuals places pressure on the size of the species population, and the lack of resources means increased competition and as a consequence, some organisms will not survive. The organisms that die as a consequence of this competition is not totally random, Darwin found that those organisms more suited to their environment were more likely to survive.
Lack of resources are pools and to a great extent, coaches. The expensive capital investment (pools) raises the per-capita cost of participation. This works to keep clubs smaller, particularly with respect to the natural competition with swim clubs and recreational swim for pool time. As a result of (indoor) physical plant costs and inherent limitations, water polo is currently far better able to thrive in an environment with year round mild climate where the sport can be played outside. Outside California, coaching is the resource most lacking. Good players cannot be produced with a 1 week camp, only through solid, year round , knowledgeable coaching.
Genetic pollution: The gene pool of a species or a population is the variety of genetic information in its living members. A large gene pool is associated with robust populations that can survive bouts of intense selection pressure. Meanwhile, low genetic diversity (see inbreeding and population bottlenecks) reduces the range of adaption possible. Any external effect that lessens genetic diversity within the original population increases the chance of extinction.
A sport will thrive, and grow, to the extent that it has many players over a wide geographic area, across all ages and genders. This is what helps to protect itself from the pressures of economic downturns, facility limitations, gender selection (Title IX), and other regional pressures. A sport which experiences geographic diversity creates pools of people who solve the same problems in different ways, ensuring the continuation of the sport through creativity and smart management and sharing those resources. A sport with age diversity provides teachers, coaches and children to nurture its growth
Ask yourselves: Can a sport survive when 90% of its members and coaches are inside 1 state?
Habitat degradation is currently the main anthropogenic cause of species extinctions. This may occur by direct effects, such as the environment becoming toxic, or indirectly, by limiting a species' ability to compete effectively for diminished resources or against new competitor species
Water polo faces competition from more sports for a diminishing number of children with fewer discretionary dollars. A growing number of sports with smaller physical plant needs offer less expensive choices. Water polo must therefore be disproportionately MORE attractive to offset its intrinsically high costs.
Predation, competition, and disease: Before the evolution of hominids, life forms competed with each other and drove one another extinct. Invasive alien species can affect native species directly by eating them, competing with them, and introducing pathogens or parasites that sicken or kill them or, indirectly, by destroying or degrading their habitat.
Water polo faces increasing challenges of competition from AYSO soccer, Little League, Basketball, Pop Warner Football, Youth Hockey, recently Lacrosse, and a myriad of other (traditionally popular) sports. As discretionary dollars and total numbers of children shrink, competition will increase and only the strongest of those will survive. Do you believe water polo will be a survivor?
Worldwide participation is dropping. Pro teams are running out of money, players not being paid and spectators dwindling. The rules are incomprehensible, constantly changing and interpreted by people who have no knowledge of the game. What would Charles Darwin conclude when faced with these realities?
In the United States, the NCAA categorizes water polo as an “endangered sport” meaning that it does not have the requisite number of member schools participating to be included in NCAA competition but as an Olympic Sport, the NCAA makes an allowance.
How long do you think the NCAA would continue water polo if the IOC succeeds in eliminating it from the Olympics as they have been attempting for several years? As participation continues to fall in Europe and fail to thrive in Asia, Africa and the Americas, many within LEN feel that 2016 may well be the last year of water polo in Olympic competition.
A species becomes extinct when the last existing member of that species dies. Extinction therefore becomes a certainty when there are no surviving individuals that are able to reproduce and create a new generation. A species may become functionally extinct when only a handful of individuals survive, which are unable to reproduce due to poor health, age, sparse distribution over a large range, a lack of individuals of both sexes, or other reasons.
We need to collectively wake up, pull together, roll up our sleeves and get to work… before we find ourselves back at a state fair… in a Madame Toussads diorama of extinct species.
Evolution of Man?
In next month's article, I will address these problems with solutions that might just make sense
