The registration form gets filled out in January, and then silence. Your swimmers pay, promise themselves they'll build up the distance, and quietly fall off when the pool feels cold and the alarm feels early. By race week half your field is undertrained, a chunk is a no-show, and the group chat you built to keep them fired up has gone dead.
- The long gap between sign-up and race day is where motivation goes to die — swimmers register months out, then coast until it's too late to be ready
- No-shows and undertrained entrants at the start line, because nothing held anyone accountable to the dryland and conditioning work between splashes
- Open water training happens where your camera can't follow, so you have no honest signal of who's actually putting in the sessions
- Your event's energy peaks on race day and vanishes the rest of the year, leaving no reason for swimmers to stay engaged or come back next season
How Cadoo solves it
Put real money on the swim block, not just the entry fee
Cadoo lets your swimmers bet money with friends on hitting their training goals in the weeks before your event. When there's cash on the line for showing up — daily squats, pushups, planks, and step counts that build the engine for a long open water swim — the 6am session stops being optional. That's real motivation carrying your field from sign-up to start line, so more of them arrive ready to race instead of hoping to survive.
Cheat-proof verification so the accountability is real
Every rep-based workout is counted and form-scored by AI straight from the phone camera — pushups, squats, situps, pullups, dips, and plank holds — while daily steps read from Apple Health or Google Health Connect. No honor system, no padded logs. Your swimmers can't fake the dryland conditioning that keeps them strong for the back half of a distance swim, which means the training they claim is training they actually did.
Leagues, leaderboards, and shareable wins that keep the event alive
Swimmers climb leagues and battle up leaderboards against the rest of your field, and every milestone becomes a shareable, skinned highlight clip they post to their feed. That turns your event into a season-long rivalry with built-in marketing — participants recruit their friends, stay engaged between races, and come back next year already warmed up.
Frequently asked questions
How does Cadoo help Swimming Events?
Cadoo keeps your swimmers training through the long stretch between registration and race day. They bet money with friends on hitting conditioning goals — pushups, squats, situps, pullups, dips, plank holds, and daily steps — all verified so the accountability is real. Leagues, leaderboards, and shareable highlight clips keep your field engaged, recruiting friends, and showing up ready to swim instead of coasting to a no-show.
Can swimmers fake their workouts to win the money?
No. Rep-based exercises are counted and form-scored by AI directly from the phone camera, and daily steps are pulled from Apple Health or Google Health Connect. The camera handles reps and form; your health app handles steps. There's no honor-system logging, so the conditioning work your swimmers claim is work they genuinely put in before your event.
How do we set up a challenge for our swim event?
You can build a game yourself through the Cadoo Upside Hub, or email Tim@cadoo.io and we'll help you design a training challenge tailored to your event and participants.
Ready to launch a game for swimming and open-water event organizers?
Set up a branded, camera-verified fitness game through the Cadoo Upside Hub, or talk to us and we’ll build it with you.