first of all, congrats to the meet directors and all the volunteers on a job well done. so organized and efficient!! very impressive. the only thing i wish someone could explain to me is why the usms champ. committee changed the team scoring from large, medium and small team to clumping everyone in the same category. seems extremely unfair to have what i call "real teams" competing against state mega teams. there is no possibility for "real teams" to ever come close to competing against them. if you are going to give team awards at the end of the meet, is there any way you can do it fairly? our team is extremely proud to have gotten as many team members as we did to go to natls. (most of them for the first time), but unfortunately they were very disillusioned (as was i) with the idea that we would be competing against state teams. as one of the coaches i didn't have an explanation. even though we were very proud of our 7th place finish in men's division, and our 12th place in combined, we were only one of a few "real teams" in the top ten. would appreciate responses. maybe even someone from the champ.committee could explain how they felt this scoring system would be more fair to the majority of swimmers. then i can pass it along to my teammates.. i don't want them to be so disillusioned that they lose interest in attending any future natls. thanks
For individual events, we don't have medal categories for short, medium, or tall swimmers or for inexperienced, moderately experienced, and elite swimmers. We simply give out medals to those that earned them by swimming the fastest.]
We, IMHO, are not trying to "give away awards." To me that doesn't make anything inclusive. (I'm happy bringing home the program from Nationals! It serves as a reminder for how I did.)
I do agree that people earn their awards. And they're usually DARN fast too! Which is awesome. What is unique is that those that compete regularly at Nationals, or not, but that same group we always see, are so aware of each other. I love the human interest stories that go with USMS. "So and so just had a heart attack and swam the mile", or "so and so overcame cancer and won Nationals."
The true spirit of USMS is not in the individual or even team awards, but how there are so many of us who just love to swim/compete, and find a way to do it because it's a part of our lives. USMS is an awesome organization in that it lets us "be kids again" in a swimming environment. You get to go to workout, enter meets, compete, and do so with like-minded people. Now let's all sing kum-bay-yah and :wine:
For individual events, we don't have medal categories for short, medium, or tall swimmers or for inexperienced, moderately experienced, and elite swimmers. We simply give out medals to those that earned them by swimming the fastest.]
We, IMHO, are not trying to "give away awards." To me that doesn't make anything inclusive. (I'm happy bringing home the program from Nationals! It serves as a reminder for how I did.)
I do agree that people earn their awards. And they're usually DARN fast too! Which is awesome. What is unique is that those that compete regularly at Nationals, or not, but that same group we always see, are so aware of each other. I love the human interest stories that go with USMS. "So and so just had a heart attack and swam the mile", or "so and so overcame cancer and won Nationals."
The true spirit of USMS is not in the individual or even team awards, but how there are so many of us who just love to swim/compete, and find a way to do it because it's a part of our lives. USMS is an awesome organization in that it lets us "be kids again" in a swimming environment. You get to go to workout, enter meets, compete, and do so with like-minded people. Now let's all sing kum-bay-yah and :wine:
