I see that the Championship Committee is finally considering having distance swimmers pay more for their splashes. See www.usms.org/.../champ-2012-3-25-1.pdf. This is long overdue since they are the reason that national championships last so long. If we only had 50’s and 100’s we’d be done by noon every day. Maybe with increased fees swimmers will think twice before entering a 1650.
Sure, then let's go to 25s only and then we'd be out by 9am. Hey, better yet, how about we just race to the flags and call it a day?
What a stupid idea.
This is called swimming ... if anything, we need to remove the 50s, especially in short course, so we can see more swimming and less starting, turning and underwater dolphin kick.
:applaud:
But I do like the idea of long course nationals being held in Aspen, CO. Now we've just got to get the city of Aspen to build a 50 meter pool!
A 1500 at 8,000 feet elevation isn't going to be easy, but since I'll be paying those increased fees to swim the distance events at least I'll be getting my money's worth! :)
Why should someone pay more because they are better at longer events? Having to pay mire because someone can swim more than a 50 without needing a break to recover is absurd
Nobody is asking you to pay more because you are soooo truly special and talented that you are able to swim > 50 meters, although I assure you we are all in awe. This about paying fairly for the pool time you use while being as truly special and talented as you are. Really, I mean it: congratulations on how far you can swim!
50s and 100s will be $3 per splash
200s will be $5 per splash
500 free will be $10 per splash
1000 free will be $20 per splash
1650 free will be $25 per splash (to be generous, if you enter both distance events it will only be $40)
That'd be fine with me. I'd also pay extra for split requests.
Whiny distance dweebs. This proposal is rational. We should pay for the resources we use, and time is a limited resource at meets.
You should be paying us because we give you the rest you need between your events.
Nobody is asking you to pay more because you are soooo truly special and talented that you are able to swim > 50 meters, although I assure you we are all in awe. This about paying fairly for the pool time you use while being as truly special and talented as you are. Really, I mean it: congratulations on how far you can swim!
So slower swimmers should pay more too? The people who swim 100 free close to 2 minutes are consuming twice as much pool time as the guys going 50 seconds. Double their entry fees? How about a sliding scale where the entry fee goes up by 25 cents for each 5 second increase in entry time? Of course, we would need to discourage cheapskates who enter faster times by imposing a penalty of twice the fee difference if you miss your seed time.
