www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../33152.asp
Article written by P. Whitten.
I did not know that USMS does not belong to USADA. Rumor mill speculates that a percentage (small? large?) of masters records (FINA, USMS) were set by athletes on performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).
Out here in New Mexico, we don't worry about keeping masters records. It's not because we are against PEDs driven record breaking - it's because our LMSC is short and no one wants to volunteer to keep records. :cane:
Most people just want to get a good swimming workout and are not interested in competition. I'll speculate that if the vast majority that make up the current USMS membership were NOT required to join USMS (in order to swim under a USMS program) that membership would plummet.
www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../33152.asp
Article written by P. Whitten.
I did not know that USMS does not belong to USADA. Rumor mill speculates that a percentage (small? large?) of masters records (FINA, USMS) were set by athletes on performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).
I haven't set any Masters records, but PED's are a regular part of my training. I'm in big trouble if they start testing for my regime of pizza and beer.
Who cares? Masters swimming is a ridiculous charade anyway. Techsuits, anyone? Until they're banned by USMS everything's a farce. Sorry I was wrong - I've been under a rock for 3 years since I gave up going to meets because I can't stand triathletes bragging about 8 minute 500s.
It was supposed to be a way for people older than college to get together, swim and compete against each other in a relaxed and fun environment. Anyone serious about their ambitions is swimming with a club or combo team with the senior/elite swimmers. Anyone else with delusions of grandeur is simply taking it too damn seriously.
Practice hard, race "fast", and have fun. Like any other organized adult sport, you add rules, records, regulations, doping controls, and it becomes one gigantic pissing contest - literally and figuratively. Who cares if Lance goes to a Masters meet? I certainly don't.
P.S. His presence is probably "unwelcome" by some because of personality, not because he's a disgraced PED user.
How, exactly? Yes there is a wide range of ability levels represented at masters meets. Some people compete in masters purely to have fun. Others take it very seriously. I see no problem with either approach.
If someone's 40 years old and taking Masters swimming very seriously, they have issues. You can be serious about being healthy and nutrition I get that - it's a great lifelong sport for healthy living. But when you've got 40 and 50 year old men taking warm-ups so seriously you wonder if they'll punch you in the face, that's about where I draw the line. And then triathletes who do 4000yd warmp-ups and proceed to do their 500 at the same pace, sitting through 10 heats of the 500 free because so many people give up sprinting.
And by the way - having fun doesn't mean you're Joe Slow in heat 1. I know many swimmers, myself included, that had fun no matter if it was our best event and we're in the final heat, or we're swimming something we'd never do and line up against the 65yo woman in heat 1. It was all a blast. Sadly many of us don't compete anymore, for a lot of the same reasons.
It takes a special kind of mindset to swim and train as you age. Lance has it. Let him compete. Although I've never seen him at a Masters meet but I could see him taking himself too seriously as well.
love this quote! so i'm stuck in a dead end job that has zero sense of accomplishment - so i go to practice 3 to 4 times a week, train hard, have goals and want to improve to get some sort of good feeling in my life and according to you, i have "issues"?!?! would i get physically violent to any extent during a swim meet for any reason? no - because 99.9% of masters swimmers are there to enjoy themselves and they want YOU to have fun too. given, i have only been participating in masters for the last 2 years, but i have yet to encounter ANYONE who makes a swim meet an unpleasent event just because they can.
Me too! And add raising a special needs kid. But swimming is fun and gives me laffs! And maybe even if I drop 2 seconds in the slowest heat.. I feel like a rock star!
and I practice just as hard as the fast ones( 4 x's a week, plus drylands).. There's no charade.. I'm a 37 year old working mom who chooses to compete to have fun! And takes my swimming serious!
Where else can you be entered into a meet, and the stands are the most boisterous for a 82 year old grandmother that just finished a legal 100 fly? USMS rocks!
:woot:
Who cares? Masters swimming is a ridiculous charade anyway. Techsuits, anyone? Until they're banned by USMS everything's a farce. Sorry I was wrong - I've been under a rock for 3 years since I gave up going to meets because I can't stand triathletes bragging about 8 minute 500s.
It was supposed to be a way for people older than college to get together, swim and compete against each other in a relaxed and fun environment. Anyone serious about their ambitions is swimming with a club or combo team with the senior/elite swimmers. Anyone else with delusions of grandeur is simply taking it too damn seriously.
Practice hard, race "fast", and have fun. Like any other organized adult sport, you add rules, records, regulations, doping controls, and it becomes one gigantic pissing contest - literally and figuratively. Who cares if Lance goes to a Masters meet? I certainly don't.
P.S. His presence is probably "unwelcome" by some because of personality, not because he's a disgraced PED user.
This guy sounds like another disenfranchised breaststroker (as all breaststrokers are)...probably swam some rec. league growing up and failed in his attempted comeback in this "charade" of a sport by getting his ass kicked by a triathlete.
This guy sounds like another disenfranchised breaststroker (as all breaststrokers are)...probably swam some rec. league growing up and failed in his attempted comeback in this "charade" of a sport by getting his ass kicked by a triathlete.
I didn't know we breaststrokers had a franchise to be disenfranchised from.If I ever had one I don't miss it,or are you just trolling Paul?
