The Amazing Race

I never thought I'd be inputting an article that encouraged people to watch a reality TV show, but it's going to happen here today! Next Tuesday night (November 16th) at 9 pm Eastern time, tune in to your local CBS affiliate and watch "The Amazing Race".

Now, I'm sure you're wondering WHY I would encourage you to watch this show. It all started thirty years ago.

When I broke onto the national scene as a young swimmer, I had people I looked up to. Heroes, as it were. As I started to score points at Senior Nationals, I took notice of other swimmers around my age, especially younger swimmers, because I figured I'd be racing them for years to come. At one of my first nationals, I was one of the younger swimmers, but there was this other kid, about 14 years old, two full years younger than I was...IN MY EVENT!

When you're one of the youngest swimmers at Seniors, you take pride in that. So when you see someone on the psych sheet who's younger than you, you KNOW you're in for a long road ahead racing this guy.

I can't remember how many races I ended up swimming against John, but I can count the times I beat him, because there weren't many of them. A couple years after we first met and raced, we ended up 1st and 2nd at Olympic Trials. To let you know what kind of friends we were, rather than rivals, we decided to room together on our trip to China and Hawaii. Through the rest of our career, we raced, but it was never vicious. We were respectful competitors.

A couple years ago, John and I got back into contact with each other. After you've lost touch for a while, catching up is fun, and I'm not sure John was surprised to learn that I was still involved in swimming. I certainly wasn't surprised at his success.

Last week, I stayed with John and his wife, Susan, and their two wonderful kids. John was SWAMPED at work, getting ready for... yep... next Tuesday night. John, it turns out, is the Producer for, "The Amazing Race" on CBS.

If you're a fan of the show, and are hoping I can give you an inside edge on why certain things happen the way they do...forget it. John won't say a WORD about it. He won't even smirk when you're trying to figure out if one of the guys on the show is nice, or a jerk. He's like ICE. So, I have NO insider information about the show, other than.... IT'S ON NEXT TUESDAY NIGHT!

Look at it this way. When you watch "The Amazing Race," you're supporting swimming. You'll be hard pressed to find a more successful swimmer than John Moffet, and he's used his work ethic, dedication, and creativity to become a success in the broadcast industry. I'm still not surprised.

Did I mention it's on next Tuesday night on CBS?

John will be featured soon in one of the upcoming Olympic Interviews, but right now, he's just too darn busy to answer our questions.