SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side, or you can find the poll embedded at the bottom of this post.
Our most recent poll asked SwimSwam readers whether they were more excited for the Bloomington Pro Swim Series or the Atlanta Classic:
RESULTS
Question: Which meet are you most excited for this weekend?
- Bloomington Pro Swim Series – 52.6%
- Atlanta Classic – 47.4%
In a narrow poll results, slightly more than half of fans were more excited for the Bloomington Pro Swim Series than the Atlanta Classic running concurrently.
Bloomington had the advantage of the broader Pro Swim Series structure: solid prize money was involved, along with the continuing chase for the overall series title and $10,000 prize and the SwimSquad battles. Bloomington earned 52.6% of the total votes. Also helping Bloomington’s cause was the news that Cody Miller and several of the Indiana pros would be tapering for the event. Meanwhile the Pro Swim Series debut of recently-graduated breaststroke star and world record-holder Lilly King was another big draw in Bloomington.
While Bloomington definitely had the deeper field, Atlanta may have had the bigger names. Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky are probably the two biggest names in American swimming right now. Ledecky competed in Bloomington and Dressel in Atlanta, but Dressel’s wide-ranging event choices drew more headlines and fan intrigue than Ledecky’s more traditional lineup. In addition, the Atlanta meet geographically pulled most of the Georgia pros, including Hali Flickinger, Melanie Margalis and Olivia Smoliga.
Atlanta only pulled 47.4% of the votes though. Fans were frustrated in following the meet, without a live stream and with pretty unreliable live results for much of the event. And the limited depth made prelims much less exciting. Ultimately, though, the two provided pretty similar high-level performances.
Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks voters which of the power-5 conference head coaching hires so far this offseason has been the best:
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ABOUT A3 PERFORMANCE
The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner
Fairly basic. I watched Bloomington and read about Atlanta.
Tsss y’all didn’t see Dressel run down Kalisz so whatever you need to tell yourself
Must suck to be Murphy and have 2 individual Olympic golds and a WR and lose out in the “biggest names in America swimming” to a guy who has neither.
Bruh, Murphy is one of the biggest names in American swimming. He didn’t swim at either of these meets.
Surprised it was that close