Sunday, May 18, 2008

'How Kate Ziegler became the world's top distance swimmer' - the title is misleading and the article is very nuanced.

Kate Ziegler is elusive and even ghost-like. Articles about her are rarely written, media is tightly guarded, and photographs are practically non-existent. My site is searched constantly for information regarding her and in fact, she is one of the top ten most searched for swimmers. The articled linked to is nuanced in that will you know more about Kate Ziegler when your done with it?

This San Jose Mercury News is regarding her thoughts about the 1500m, her pleasure in being a non-celebrity, and a very witty observation or a dig at FINA by proxy regarding the silliness of not having the 1500 in the Olympics: "... Ziegler's signature event, the 1,500-meter freestyle, is not included in the Olympics because of old-fashioned stereotypes about women being too weak to swim the longest event in the pool. "They have the 10K open water race," Benecki said. "But the 1,500 is too long?" ..." [Link]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok. I live in Virginia and Kate is in the media on a regular basis. Sports Illustrated, USA Today, Vogue, Washington Post. She loves the media. Unfortunately her personality is awkward and unattractive. I have seen her throw horrible fits on the pool deck like a spoiled child and I have seen her belittle her team mates until they are in tears. She used to have more attention but the press is getting wise to her uninteresting personality. Benecki is an extreme egotist and doesn't make things much better. She will get much more attention when she becomes an Olympian but it is hard to love her like a true American Sweetheart.

Tony Austin said...

Yes, she is in those publications but all of the above seem so vague and really sort of fluffy rather than filled with lots of quotations etc.

I think that vagueness has made her one of my most searched-for item.

The numbers are so large, I was thinking, why is Phelps being paid so much money when people want to see, hear and listen to the female swimmers like Ziegler, Beard and Hoff?