Darian Townsend entered a masters meet in Mesa over the weekend and broke five world records in the 25-29 age group. This was Townsend's first masters meet. For those of you who are not familiar with him, Townend is a three-time Olympian and gold medalist from South Africa.
Swimswam.com posted a story about Townend's incredible meet. Here's the link: swimswam.com/.../
I found the comments quite interesting especially this one by "HMMM":
I have no problem with athletes making money off of Masters but why have a separate division called Masters if there are no rules or restrictions? None of the sponsored people you mention in their 50′s are training for Rio are they?. Most people in Masters believe they are swimming against recreational swimmers which is why there is a separate Masters division and those records are set by recreational/retired swimmers. If Phelps remains retired and wants to swim Masters, well there goes a few records in his age group but none of us in our club would have a problem with it. We discussed that very subject this morning after practice and Phelps, like Rowdy Gaines is retired and would welcome him. Many of us have swam against and met Rowdy and it is a true honor to share the pool with him in a Masters meet. But our entire team would have a huge problem if Lochte decides to swim a Masters meet while he is still fully training for the Olympics and blows all the records out of the water. If Lochte swims 12 events, he is going to walk away with 12 records. Why have a separate record book? If he can do that, you might as well just call us all USA swimmers and do away with the Masters division. There are meets where fully training pros swim and they are called Grand Prix’s, Nationals, and Worlds. Call us old fashioned, call us Masters swimmers, but we all think Masters should be separate from the training pros..
So I'm curious what the rest of you think. Should someone like Darian Townend or Ryan Lochte be allowed to swim in masters meets when they are professional swimmers who are training full-time? And maybe "allowed" is a poor choice or word. The bottom line is do you think they have any business swimming masters meets?
I actually read your post, maybe even twice, and then I quoted it. I simply find your opinion to be self serving so that you can get more records or TTs. So, you don't get a TT or a #1 ranking, so what? Is it that important? Is excluding swimmers to guarantee yourself a trinket what USMS is all about?
There will always be someone faster. You want to exclude faster people simply because they are faster, and for no other reason. I don't want to be in a race next to someone who I know can't break records.
If NT members don't want their times to count I assume they can go exhibition at meets. I did this in an 800 last summer. A fellow Masters swimmer and I knew we would be in the top 3 of a USAS meet so we declared ourselves as exhibition swimmers so that the kids could get the medals.
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I'd bet if you asked Darian Townsend if he knew he could swim exhibition, he would not know.
My post is not about myself only, and that you read it that way is your own personal definition.
But since you ask if it is that important: yes, to me, personally it is. Since I have little to no competition in my age group, I am going after rankings and records to find motivation. I especially like meets where men and women are mixed so I don't have to swim a race all by myself. I'm not saying I am so much better than anybody else, but you asked me if that's important to me and here is the reason why it is.
For example: I swam a zone record in the 400IM LCM earlier this year, simply by pushing myself by setting a time as a goal I wanted to reach. The next person in that race (regardless of age group, it was seeded by time) was over 1min behind me. So why not use this as a motivation?
I used to swim on a level that I will never reach again so "breaking personal best times" isn't an option for me.
What is your personal motivation? Maybe you can get me an idea to get away from my current approach.
Overall, this thread asked if elite swimmers (you put your own definition behind this) should be allowed to compete. And I said, yes of course they should. And only excluded current NT members from TT and records. I think that is a pretty fair thought if they compete on a level where they are not worries about setting state and zone records but national and world records.
I doubt a current NT member would care if their time counts for TT or records. But that would be an interesting question to ask one of them.
I actually read your post, maybe even twice, and then I quoted it. I simply find your opinion to be self serving so that you can get more records or TTs. So, you don't get a TT or a #1 ranking, so what? Is it that important? Is excluding swimmers to guarantee yourself a trinket what USMS is all about?
There will always be someone faster. You want to exclude faster people simply because they are faster, and for no other reason. I don't want to be in a race next to someone who I know can't break records.
If NT members don't want their times to count I assume they can go exhibition at meets. I did this in an 800 last summer. A fellow Masters swimmer and I knew we would be in the top 3 of a USAS meet so we declared ourselves as exhibition swimmers so that the kids could get the medals.
]
I'd bet if you asked Darian Townsend if he knew he could swim exhibition, he would not know.
My post is not about myself only, and that you read it that way is your own personal definition.
But since you ask if it is that important: yes, to me, personally it is. Since I have little to no competition in my age group, I am going after rankings and records to find motivation. I especially like meets where men and women are mixed so I don't have to swim a race all by myself. I'm not saying I am so much better than anybody else, but you asked me if that's important to me and here is the reason why it is.
For example: I swam a zone record in the 400IM LCM earlier this year, simply by pushing myself by setting a time as a goal I wanted to reach. The next person in that race (regardless of age group, it was seeded by time) was over 1min behind me. So why not use this as a motivation?
I used to swim on a level that I will never reach again so "breaking personal best times" isn't an option for me.
What is your personal motivation? Maybe you can get me an idea to get away from my current approach.
Overall, this thread asked if elite swimmers (you put your own definition behind this) should be allowed to compete. And I said, yes of course they should. And only excluded current NT members from TT and records. I think that is a pretty fair thought if they compete on a level where they are not worries about setting state and zone records but national and world records.
I doubt a current NT member would care if their time counts for TT or records. But that would be an interesting question to ask one of them.
