ShowerThoughts

Sure, but aren’t competitive cycling and swimming judged based on speed? People generally don’t have to bike or swim at those high speeds except in rare cases of emergency. Diving is usually based on flourish and performance? I can see people wanting to minimize pain when diving for leisure, but the backflips and twirls aren’t essential and most people would hurt themselves trying those.

I can see lifeguarding as an exception. Lifeguards don't have to show off when diving in to rescue somebody from drowning, but their quick swimming is essential for these emergencies. For lifeguards, becoming a fast swimmer is training for their job, not training for competition. There are other abilities found in sports that may help other emergency services, but I don’t see much of a career pipeline of pro athlete -> emergency services for related skills.

I might be coming at this from an overly utilitarian standpoint. There can be leisure and fun in swimming, cycling, punching a bag, catching a ball, etc., but the criteria for competition are beyond what would serve a purpose beyond that bubble of leisure except for the rare emergency cases in which superhuman ability would save somebody’s life or something. And even for these emergency cases, there isn’t much of an apparent push to divert the pros’ skills to serve society beyond entertainment.