Animalia had produced some very unique challenges, in that before the accidental dumping of the Animalia Virus into the stream that went by the Brown Farm and fed Lyre, the world had only one species that had a high level of sentience and sapience, Humans. The creation and revelation in a race of anthropomorphic animals added to that and brought about the base challenges that would be bound to come from that. Such as would an uplifted Horse get the same treatment as a Human. Horizon, thankfully, had good lawyers that had been able to assure the legal protection for Animalians, which in turn bought them time to integrate into society, first around Lyre and then in other places. That part was taken as a major victory as Animalians were soon able to integrate into society in many parts of the world.
However, this soon presented other questions, as while Animalians began to integrate and interact with Human society, and spreading beyond just Lyre/Animalia, there were questions, often from people supportive of Animalians as to why Animalians weren't joining professional sports leagues and the like. After all, one would think that Animalians with all their physical abilities would enjoy the competition that would come from sports, something that was shown in the first IAC during the summer after Abby Brown's freshman year in high school. This then led to Animalia Ambassadoria doing some coverage pieces on comparing Human and Animalian athletes to show on how many of the physical enhancements and adaptations Animalians had put them in a class that Humans generally couldn't equal. There were cases where Humans competed well and even outdid some Animalians, but a lot of it was fairly circumstantial.
The first comparison had been with running gained some attention that it was then continued in following IAC years, which then benefitted by being between years when the Olympics were competing and could then allow for a high end athlete to take part in the comparison and to show how Humans and Animalians compared at certain sports, which in turn required that with professional sports, things would have to wait until there were more Animalians around to avoid teams getting an Animalian from having an unfair advantage against Human competition. And even some of the Animalians that had come to Lyre for the swimming events in the IAC between Animalians were soon brought into the area where the caught in seeing this year's Animalian/Human comparison, which focused on swimming this year.
"This will be interesting," Kumiko said to her cousin as they sat down in the stands over the large pool at the Claw Coliseum building, "seeing on how everyone will compare..."
"You're just wanting to participate in the race," Kumiyo answered.
"Of course... it'd be a fairer match," Ningen commented as he sat down next to Kumiko, "and that's why we've been training for all this. The comparison just happens to be here."
"That brings all of us here," came a new voice, "but the comparison between Human and Animalian is also fairly popular and Animalia Ambassadoria has used it for educational purposes."
The three present residents of Heiya Island turned to see another Dinotopian, one who was smaller and closer the normal size of a Human in terms of height. However, a dorsal fin on the back of her head and a sort of fluke on her tail gave an indication that she was based more off of a marine reptile from the Mesozoic Era.
"I'm Miki," the new arrival spoke, "I'm a Mixosaurus Dinotopian... it's a type of Ichthyosaur."
"You're from Dinotopia Aquatica," Kumiyo spoke, "we'd be on our way there next to see Ty when all the IAC stuff is done... or at least the races that my cousin and her mate are in."
"I'm in a few of the swimming races too," Miki answered, "and yes, I'm from Dinotopia Aquatica. Perhaps we could all travel together... I'm sure Ty would be most happy to see another Mosasaur Dinotopian."
"We've actually met," Kumiyo spoke, "and he helped with my conversion and has been nice... though with my cousin and I living on Heiya Island with Ningen, here, and him living at Dinotopia Aquatica and working as a lifeguard and "shark warden" at one of the beaches near it... there is some obvious distance. Right now, with the IAC having these contests... I'm here to root them on and then we'd go on to see Ty as a bit of a vacation."
"I'm sure you'll like Florida's warmer waters," Miki smirked, "Heiya Island can be rather temperate... and even it is likely warmer than the waters around Hokkaido, particularly during the winter months."
Kumiyo was quiet on that. She had trained with Kumiko as part of her cousin's training for the IAC swimming events. All of that confirmed that her long Mosasaur tail was strong enough to let her swim with good speed, even if her large breasts didn't give her the most hydro-dynamic form. Kumiko's silver/gray and white tail powered her forward well, and her overall smaller weight made her faster than Kumiyo, but the one thing that Kumiyo noticed the most was the temperature difference in the water and how it affected her. She was big enough to function and it wasn't freezing, but she could tell that the water was cooler, and Kumiko almost didn't seem to notice. It left Kumiyo wondering if Dolphin and Whale Animalians might have some effective, even if thin, layer of blubber the way the mundane animal did that helped keep them warm.
"Maybe," Kumiyo answered, "though for the moment... we're here for the IAC and these comparisons between Human and Animalian athletes..."
"And they should be interesting," Miki agreed and the noted the group gathered below them at the edge of the pool.
The pool had the length of a standard Olympic sized pool, something that would fit exercise and standard racing. However, it was deeper as part of a means to give Animalians, many of whom were well bigger than the average Human the means to submerge themselves and swim without too much trouble. At the edge of the pool and running along the narrow end in each lane were a group of Humans and Animalians. And they were arranged by gender. Males were on one set of lanes for the pool and females were on the other set of lanes. Kumiko noted that of this group, none of the Animalians were based on any aquatic animal, no fish, dolphin, whale, or frog. The closest thing to a "marine animal" were a pair of Polar Bear Animalians, with the male wearing blue swim trunks that said "Chilly" in white block lettering running up the side of his leg. She also noted Jessica and Roger also present there, and she watched Jessica hug a Human woman that was in the lane next to her on the female's side. Kumiko figured that this woman was either family that hadn't converted or a close family friend. The last two Animalians were a pair of White Tail Deer Animalians, a buck and a doe.
Closer to the stands, the present crew for Animalia Ambassadoria, that covered Animalian sporting events stood ready and began to explain the event and introducing the competitors. The races would be run in stages with two sets of competitors. The first would deal with more Animalians based on "terrestrial" animals, and those that hadn't been super involved in the IAC before. Though there was some clarification that in many cases the Polar Bear was classified as a Marine Mammal, given how much it depended on sea ice to hunt seals in the Artic. This would then set the baseline comparison between Humans and Animalians that were based off of animals that, like Humans, generally moved better on the land than they did in water. The crew then did introduce the Human representatives, which did include Jessica's parents and along with a pair of swimmers that had been training for the Olympics and were hoping to qualify for team USA in the 2024 Summer Games. The race would then be a standard run down the length of the pool in one direction.
And that first race then went in a way that was fairly interesting. Marcy and Chilly took a fairly solid lead from the start, which was to be expected as Polar Bears did a lot of swimming naturally. A bit behind them came Jessica and Roger, though they really weren't in a position to challenge Marcy or Chilly for the lead. And it was there that things became interesting. For while Jessica's parents were older and weren't exactly world class athletes, they weren't in bad shape, and it did appear as though Mrs. Mariana, at least, enjoyed getting some exercise in the pool on days when she didn't have work or some other thing to tend to, and to a degree, this allowed them to keep pace with Jessica and Roger at first and stay about even with the two Deer Animalians but after about the halfway point in the pool, they began to fall a bit behind Jessica and Roger and at best only narrowly lost to the two Deer Animalians. The two athletes training for the Olympics, meanwhile, did a bit better. They actually managed to keep pace with Jessica and Roger for the entirety of the race with the female Olympic swimmer narrowly beating Jessica while the male Olympic swimmer narrowly lost to Roger, and both beat the two Deer Animalians.
"Interesting," Kumiyo said to her cousin, "Did you see...?"
"Yes," Kumiko answered, "it was sort of like what Ami and the others said to us when we were discussing what Animalians to become. Deer can swim, and may swim fairly well, but their narrow legs and feet would put them at a disadvantage against those with broader feet and they still had to rely on a lot of extra muscle power to maintain the speed that they managed."
"I think the male was also slowed by his antlers," Ningen commented, noting the velvet covered antlers that the male Deer Animalian had, "though... they both still managed to beat the two local Humans... who are hugging the female Rabbit Animalian."
"That's the Marianas," Kumiko told her mate, "The Rabbit Animalian is their daughter, Jessica. She was on the first Animalia Ambassadoria team."
"Why didn't they convert?" Ningen wondered, "they seem happy with their daughter."
"Not everyone wants to convert," Kumiko commented, "they were probably content with who they are and have pride in their daughter and her bond-mate. And in many ways... that works quite well."
"It didn't win the race, though," Ningen pointed out.
"True," Kumiyo agreed, "there... only the two Olympic athletes managed to actually beat the Animalians... and even then, those were largely with the ones less adapted for swimming... and they weren't close to catching the two Polar Bear Animalians. In this... it's something to show where intense training and practice may not help for much against those that have more natural advantages, which I think is the point of these comparisons."
After a few moments, the return race was then set, and this time with different Animalian opponents. Kumiko and Ningen were both intrigued to see Marina and Bennie come out to join the group that would be participating in the race back, which Kumiyo figured made sense. Even if Animalians were generally monogamous in their mating habits, that wouldn't kill the social behaviors to want to be with others like them, even if Bennie and Marina had the Orca's more traditional black and white coloring while Kumiko and Ningen were rare "white" Orcas. For Ningen, it might have even been more instinctual given that he had been a wild male Orca, who had swum from his natural range as age and injury began to catch up with him, only to accidently beach himself on Heiya Island to be uplifted and Kumiko's mate.
The last two pair to come out were the Remora Animalians, Ralph and Rita, and then the Marlin Animalians, Rapier and Gladys. They shook hands with Bennie and Marina and then with the Human participants for the race and the comparison. Of course, what followed wasn't much of a race. Rapier and Gladys finished first, easily, and breaking established world records for Human swimmers at that distance. Bennie and Marina finished a bit behind them. Ralph and Rita were the slowest of the Animalian competitors, but they still easily beat Jessica's parents, though the two Olympic athletes did make the race fairly close.
"They're all fast," Ningen commented, noting the speeds taken in the last race, even for the Remoras.
"It'll be fun for when the main races for Animalians then come in," Kumiko said to him.