When the wrap-ups of 2016 are written, USA Swimming won’t count on the Rio Olympics to speak for itself.
Sensing intense competition for space in the media’s year-end collection of top 10 lists and year-in-review roundups, the governing body has launched a public relations campaign to remind reporters and editors of its accomplishments in Rio (and encourage them to dismiss the Ryan Lochte scandal that dominated headlines in the second week of the Games).
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Simone Manuel’s gold is among the moments highlighted.
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“In a year when there were some remarkable performances in sport, the Olympics accomplishments of our swimmers should be highlighted as well,” said Scott Leightman, USA Swimming director of communications. “We had a short window, a one-week window in the year, but what was achieved in that week was inspiring to our nation and inspiring to future swimmers, and we don’t want that to be forgotten.”
The U.S. swim team won 33 medals this year, matching a high from 2000 despite fielding a team mostly composed of Olympics rookies. Americans won gold in half of all races in the Games, including dominant individual performances by Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, Lilly King, Ryan Murphy and others.
But just six weeks earlier, LeBron James led the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA title in one of the great postseason performances of all time. The Chicago Cubs were already dominating Major League Baseball en route to their first World Series win in 108 years. A few weeks later, the U.S. won the Ryder Cup. And before Team USA even landed back home, Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protest made the NFL preseason especially newsworthy.
USA Swimming is pushing 10 storylines in particular, including Simone Manuel’s accomplishment as the first African-American woman gold medalist, Michael Phelps’ legend-cementing 23rd gold medal, and Katie Ledecky’s 11-second margin of victory in the 800-meter freestyle.
USA Swimming shot video of the key athletes while they gathered in New York for the Golden Goggles awards gala, and will push video and editorial content out via its social media feeds through the end of the year. The group is targeting national, consumer-focused publications in sports, entertainment, news and pop culture.
The idea was developed and executed internally.
