ITV’s Splash!

There’s a bit of controversy emanating from our television screens here in the UK on a Saturday night with Tom Daley, the poster boy and 10m diving bronze medallist from the London 2012 Olympics presenting his own TV show called Splash!

The premise of the show is that Tom acts as mentor and coach to a group of celebrities who hurl themselves from the diving boards in front of a live audience in the name of light entertainment. Each performance is judged by Tom’s own coach Andy Banks, former Olympic diving medallist Leon Taylor and Jo Brand, a likeable comedienne whose only sporting achievement is diving into a buffet. The viewing audience is encouraged to phone in for their favourite and the winner and runner-up from each heat progress to the final. When “Eddie the Eagle” won his heat he was worried that he had ruined his reputation as “Britain’s favourite loser”, although I think that unlikely. The show has been widely panned by critics and viewing audiences alike, but for car-crash TV there is something compelling about the show and it has continued to pull in the top viewing figures (6.6m peak) on a Saturday night. With camera work and production values increasing by the week, Splash! has turned into the best light-entertainment family show on the box.

I know what you’re thinking… What does this have to do with aerial skiing?

Freestyle aerial skiers train during the summer months on trampolines and diving boards but most of their skills are learned on the water ramp. You may think the association ends there, with a few somersaults performed into water, even if wearing skis, but let’s look a little further. Just like our aerial skiers, Tom receives no Lottery funding to compete for Britain, but in contrast he benefits from extensive facilities, coaching and sponsors that enable him to train and compete. In order to gain funding, any sport must now include a “talent identification” process with opportunities for participants in one sport to migrate to another. Gymnasts to diving, sprinters to bobsleigh etc. Find out what happened when National Level diver Emily Russell spent a week learning aerial skiing on a water ramp.

Many sports are competitions based on everyday things, running, cycling and swimming to name a few, but some require costly specialist equipment such as a velodrome, a 90m ski jump, or diving boards and pools. Nobody in their right mind would normally dive head first into water from higher than two double-decker buses, perhaps throwing in a couple of twists and somersaults for good measure, so why have diving boards? I can’t answer that objectively, so I’ll just say why not? Diving boards are a considered a normal installation for any decent swimming pool complex, even if they are used by a tiny proportion of the swimmers. This represents a huge investment in infrastructure for a pool, not just in the construction of the boards themselves, but also in having a roof span tall enough and pool deep enough to accommodate them, as well as other training facilities including safety rigs and bubble systems to soften the water on impact. If only we could have the same approach to building water ramps. What if water ramps became as ubiquitous as diving boards?

A recent project in Brisbane, Australia backed by current Olympic Champion Lydia Lassila proposed to build one as part of a new swimming and diving complex. The scheme was eventually blocked just as construction began by nay-sayers protesting that so few would benefit from its use, yet 10m diving platforms are considered economically viable… Really? The Brisbane complex would have given Australia a year round national training facility for freestyle aerials unequalled anywhere in the world, with aerials training no longer restricted to the summer months. Every National Team in the world should have been queuing up to train there until they could replicate it at home. Check out our Ultimate Water Ramp Guide.

Winter sport in Britain is starting to gain a higher profile, thanks to Amy Williams winning the skeleton gold in Vancouver and James ‘Woodsy’ Woods becoming a hot favourite for the slopestyle gold at the forthcoming 2014 Sochi Olympics. We have a rich history in producing aerial skiers and have the expertise to produce more in the future. If just one water ramp could be built at a swimming complex here in Britain that enabled athletes in aerials, moguls , freeskiing and snowboarding to train regularly, we could be producing Olympic medals within 20 years. China managed to achieve it in less.

Back to Splash! As a result of this high profile Saturday evening TV slot, diving is enjoying a huge surge in popularity. Audience tickets for the forthcoming British Championships sold out within hours of going on sale and diving clubs around the country are reporting a huge increase in interest and participation. It’s fantastic for the sport!

Perhaps it’s something to do with Tom’s swimming trunks being the size of a postage stamp, but the screams of Daley’s fans are almost (but not quite) drowned out by the screams of protestation coming from British Swimming. David Sparkes, Chief Executive of British Swimming has publicly criticized the diver for taking part in the show, saying he should have waited until after his competitive career as it distracts from his training. Tom’s synchro-diving partner Peter Waterfield, his coach Andy Banks and his mother have all defended Tom’s participation and deny his training has been affected. British Swimming are walking a dangerous line here, as despite his love of diving, if pushed too hard who could blame Daley if he turns his back on competitive diving to pursue a lucrative career in media?

Sport in general, has a lot to learn from Splash! There’s a new order in town, fuelled by television and social media. The YouTube generation has access to new, exciting and extreme sports as entertainment; they create their own heroes and emulate them with a speed that was unimaginable even ten years ago. Our next sporting superstars are emerging from housing estates and skateparks yet are crying out for facilities and ways to express their talents. The Olympic Associations, sporting governing bodies and the methods used to fund them need to move with the times in order to serve them well.

Perhaps one day, someone here in the UK will have the vision necessary to build a much needed water ramp for British winter athletes and try to win some winter Olympic medals as well as summer ones.