Hi everyone. I'm a slow fitness swimmer who hasn't competed since I was 14, but I'd like to start participating just because it looks fun. I understand that anyone *can* swim up to 3 events at Nationals, but do non-qualifiers take advantage of that? What proportion of heats 'd like to go, but don't want to slow everyone else down.
but don't want to slow everyone else down.
Dont' ever worry about slowing anyone else down, ever! Masters swimming is for everyone! Come to Nationals, do your best, have fun, watch other swimmers fast and slow and enjoy the wonderful atmosphere of competition and friendship.
Hi everyone. I'm a slow fitness swimmer who hasn't competed since I was 14, but I'd like to start participating just because it looks fun. I understand that anyone *can* swim up to 3 events at Nationals, but do non-qualifiers take advantage of that? What proportion of heats 'd like to go, but don't want to slow everyone else down.
I don't have quick statistics at my fingers to tell you how many swimmers are entered in the various events above/below the qualifying times, but I can at least give some quick statistics about the number of events each swimmer has entered at the upcoming Nationals in Santa Clara. There are nearly 2250 swimmers entered in the meet and the average is 4.2 events per swimmer. Here is a rough breakdown by the number of events entered per swimmer:
1 event: 5%
2 events: 11%
3 events: 25%
4 events: 11%
5 events: 13%
6 events: 34%
Although just because a swimmer enters three (or less) events doesn't mean it is a non-NQT swimmer. A swimmer on my club who often sets USMS records rarely enters more than 3 individual events. But we can at least draw the conclusion that anybody entering 4 of more events meets at least 1 qualifying time and 1/3 of the meet entrants meet at least three qualifying times.
I say it doesn't really matter how many swimmers don't make the qualifying times. The reason swimmers are permitted to enter up to three events without meeting the qualifying times* is because WE WANT YOU TO PARTICIPATE AND BE A PART OF THE MASTERS NATIONALS EXPERIENCE!
Jeff Roddin
USMS Championship Committee
* Note some Nationals have qualifying time restrictions on the distance events
I attended Clovis Nationals in 2009 with no qualifying times. I'm attending Santa Clara Nationals next month with one qualifying time.
If you're interested in what the field of participants times look like, the results for past years Nats are listed online.
www.usms.org/.../
last year at spring nationals, my friend entered her 3 events without any NQT's. She came home with 2 medals. I believe I remember that in one of her events, no one in her age group had a qualifying time. Don't be afraid to go. The energy and then atmosphere will make you feel like a superstar.
Kirstin,
I can only offer my own perspective on this, but it sounds like you & I share some similar concerns.
After 16 years out of the pool, I swam Masters meets in the Spring and Summer of 2013 weighing more than 335 lbs. Setting aside the anxiety and humiliation associated with looking like that (in a swimsuit, no less!), I -- like you -- was really worried about single-handedly adding time to meets and generally annoying people by my presence ("what is THAT guy doing here??"). What I found was a community of adult athletes who honor the USMS principle of inclusion and aren't interested in judging others on deck.
Like you, when it came time to consider whether to swim USMS Nationals at Santa Clara, I still had some misgivings about showing up to a meet for which I had not qualified and potentially slowing down a meet that needs to run on a tight time schedule. I weigh 217 lbs. today, but I'm still several months and dozens of lbs. away from being competitive in my age group. An added complication is that I was only available for Thursday and Friday, so I would be swimming not my second and third-best events, but my fifth and sixth-best events, leaving even bigger gaps between my seed times and the seed times of the second-slowest swimmers in my age group for those events. I signed up anyway, hoping that the organizers and swimmers at USMS Nationals would accept me the way other meet organizers and swimmers have over the past year. To my horror, I found that there were only 11 swimmers in my age group in the 200 Back, meaning that if a single swimmer scratched, I would personally hold up the meet for more than 30 seconds (or even more if I didn't hit my taper). When the heat sheets were released, I was relieved to find that they put me in a heat with other slower seeds from other age groups, although I will still hold the meet up a bit even if I swim well. I think jroddin and others would say that my concerns (and your concerns) aren't warranted, and that no one cares about an extra 30 seconds, or minute, or whatever, as long as you enter the meet with legitimate seed times (which I always do).
I'll let you know if I'm met with any snickering, eye rolling or general annoyance at USMS Nationals, but my strong hunch is that I won't be; this is just a really great community.
Edit: To be clear, when I say that the original poster and I share similar concerns, I'm speaking only to the etiquette of holding up heats as a slower swimmer. The weight stuff is just specific to me.
If you are seeded 11th,another way to look at it is:If one person scratches and you don't DQ, you will get a medal
I've never met any of the qualifying times. I used to think it would get easier, but it seems that I am aging, but my competition isn't. It's
discouraging to say the least.
Never had an NQT, and never been to Nationals.
In a wholly unscientific and random look at Nationals results for my age group,
there are usually a few swims (and seed times) in each event around my times or slower, i.e. slower than the NQT.
A quick search on a few of these swimmers showed that some had no NQTs and a some had 1 or more NQTs.
Kirstin,
I can only offer my own perspective on this, but it sounds like you & I share some similar concerns.
After 16 years out of the pool, I swam Masters meets in the Spring and Summer of 2013 weighing more than 335 lbs. Setting aside the anxiety and humiliation associated with looking like that (in a swimsuit, no less!), I -- like you -- was really worried about single-handedly adding time to meets and generally annoying people by my presence ("what is THAT guy doing here??"). What I found was a community of adult athletes who honor the USMS principle of inclusion and aren't interested in judging others on deck.
Like you, when it came time to consider whether to swim USMS Nationals at Santa Clara, I still had some misgivings about showing up to a meet for which I had not qualified and potentially slowing down a meet that needs to run on a tight time schedule. I weigh 217 lbs. today, but I'm still several months and dozens of lbs. away from being competitive in my age group. An added complication is that I was only available for Thursday and Friday, so I would be swimming not my second and third-best events, but my fifth and sixth-best events, leaving even bigger gaps between my seed times and the seed times of the second-slowest swimmers in my age group for those events. I signed up anyway, hoping that the organizers and swimmers at USMS Nationals would accept me the way other meet organizers and swimmers have over the past year. To my horror, I found that there were only 11 swimmers in my age group in the 200 Back, meaning that if a single swimmer scratched, I would personally hold up the meet for more than 30 seconds (or even more if I didn't hit my taper). When the heat sheets were released, I was relieved to find that they put me in a heat with other slower seeds from other age groups, although I will still hold the meet up a bit even if I swim well. I think jroddin and others would say that my concerns (and your concerns) aren't warranted, and that no one cares about an extra 30 seconds, or minute, or whatever, as long as you enter the meet with legitimate seed times (which I always do).
I'll let you know if I'm met with any snickering, eye rolling or general annoyance at USMS Nationals, but my strong hunch is that I won't be; this is just a really great community.
Edit: To be clear, when I say that the original poster and I share similar concerns, I'm speaking only to the etiquette of holding up heats as a slower swimmer. The weight stuff is just specific to me.
