Marquette Sports Law Review Volume 17 Article 8 Issue 2 Spring Swimming Upstream: Men's Olympic Swimming Sinks While Title IX Swims Megan Ryther Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslaw Part of the Entertainment and Sports Law Commons Repository Citation Megan Ryther, Swimming Upstream: Men's Olympic Swimming Sinks While Title IX Swims, 17 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 679 (2007) Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslaw/vol17/iss2/8 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. SWIMMING UPSTREAM: MEN'S OLYMPIC SWIMMING SINKS WHILE TITLE IX SWIMS* I. INTRODUCTION At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, the U.S. Men's Olympic Swimming Team (the U.S. Team) was defeated for the first time ever 2 in the 4x100 Freestyle Relay' in international competition by the Australians. Many people thought this was a fluke and the United States would come back with a vengeance in 2004, but that was not the case. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, the U.S. Team could not even manage to walk away with a silver medal, let alone a gold medal, in the 4x100 Freestyle Relay, an event it had once dominated. 3 The U.S. Team lost to South Africa and the 4 Netherlands, respectively, coming home with only a bronze. As one begins to search for answers as to why the United States continues to lose its dominance on the international swimming scene, an analysis of Title IX and its unintended consequences may provide some of the necessary answers.