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?
And yet Natalie Coughlin knew she could swim exhibition at a masters meet she competed in.
If you wanted more competition, you could swim in USAS meets.
That's a valid request. I am a USAS member but don't even make cuts for Nationals and Grand Prix. So now I am swimming on the regional/state level. I couldn't go to either meet last/this year (regional nor states) because it's a 4-5 day meet and with a full-time job, I can't take off that much time. My events were during the week. So I guess there was no way for me to swim, because losing my job over swimming isn't an option and I didn't qualify in off events "that fit my schedule". So I went to 3 meets that were more local and just the weekend. I still had no competition and spent 12 hour+ days at the pool waiting for events.
For all those reasons: I love masters swimming: I don't know one adult who doesn't swim professionally or works in aquatics who has time to spend all weekend at the pool.
That's why there is masters swimming, right? For those full-time job people that swim as a hobby more or less competitive.
I don't now why these posts became so personal, but I am sure i am not the only person in USMS who was personally impacted by this.
Did I complain? No. But somebody posted this thread to start a conversation and I am sorry that my opinion differs from 99% of the people in this thread. That doesn't mean my opinion is solely about myself. It is not.
I am all for USMS being inclusive, but for the sake of this thread, I gave my opinion, and since it differs from what people want to hear, I guess it's a wrong opinion.
And yet Natalie Coughlin knew she could swim exhibition at a masters meet she competed in.
If you wanted more competition, you could swim in USAS meets.
That's a valid request. I am a USAS member but don't even make cuts for Nationals and Grand Prix. So now I am swimming on the regional/state level. I couldn't go to either meet last/this year (regional nor states) because it's a 4-5 day meet and with a full-time job, I can't take off that much time. My events were during the week. So I guess there was no way for me to swim, because losing my job over swimming isn't an option and I didn't qualify in off events "that fit my schedule". So I went to 3 meets that were more local and just the weekend. I still had no competition and spent 12 hour+ days at the pool waiting for events.
For all those reasons: I love masters swimming: I don't know one adult who doesn't swim professionally or works in aquatics who has time to spend all weekend at the pool.
That's why there is masters swimming, right? For those full-time job people that swim as a hobby more or less competitive.
I don't now why these posts became so personal, but I am sure i am not the only person in USMS who was personally impacted by this.
Did I complain? No. But somebody posted this thread to start a conversation and I am sorry that my opinion differs from 99% of the people in this thread. That doesn't mean my opinion is solely about myself. It is not.
I am all for USMS being inclusive, but for the sake of this thread, I gave my opinion, and since it differs from what people want to hear, I guess it's a wrong opinion.
