distance swimmers shorted

So let's use 2008 (Portland) as an example. The projected ending times were: Thursday: 9:20pm Friday: 6:40pm Saturday: 8:40pm Sunday: 5:50pm If you shuffled the events around and added the couple to three extra hours for those who picked both distance events, how would you do it? And I seem to recall Thursday ending later than that (I was counting for someone). And this was west-coast time, too: I was counting for someone who was basically swimming at almost 1am by his internal clock. And this is WITHOUT allowing distance swimmers to double up. There are options but they are also unpalatable for many. For example: -- You HAVE to have NQTs to enter any event, period. -- Allow distance swimmers to enter both, but set a cap on the number of entries that are accepted. -- Make the distance NQTs harder and insist that they must be met by entrants in those events. Others have given suggestions. I may be mistaken, but I think that any solution would generate more complaints than we have right now. And most discriminate in some way against distance swimmers. Kirk mentioned that there is a perception that distance swimmers take more than their "fair share" of competition time. I don't know about fair, but the plain fact is that distance events take longer to swim and it is harder to fit them in.

So let's use 2008 (Portland) as an example. The projected ending times were: Thursday: 9:20pm Friday: 6:40pm Saturday: 8:40pm Sunday: 5:50pm If you shuffled the events around and added the couple to three extra hours for those who picked both distance events, how would you do it? And I seem to recall Thursday ending later than that (I was counting for someone). And this was west-coast time, too: I was counting for someone who was basically swimming at almost 1am by his internal clock. And this is WITHOUT allowing distance swimmers to double up. There are options but they are also unpalatable for many. For example: -- You HAVE to have NQTs to enter any event, period. -- Allow distance swimmers to enter both, but set a cap on the number of entries that are accepted. -- Make the distance NQTs harder and insist that they must be met by entrants in those events. Others have given suggestions. I may be mistaken, but I think that any solution would generate more complaints than we have right now. And most discriminate in some way against distance swimmers. Kirk mentioned that there is a perception that distance swimmers take more than their "fair share" of competition time. I don't know about fair, but the plain fact is that distance events take longer to swim and it is harder to fit them in.