I've read about Nike experiment:

They sponsored world -class marathoners from Africa (Camerun, I think)
and ship them to Norway for two years to learn to ski.
I guess, to prove the "just do it" slogan. So they sucked so much they
could've
walk faster than ski. Cost Nike pretty penny. Good. I never liked the
slogan
anyway.
You can not "just do it", you have to work, some times for years.

By the way, Armstrong was a champion swimmer in his school years too.

It is a good cardio base and soooooo boring that if you can exell at
swimming,
everything else is a picnic.