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?
Note – Britta may be the only person posting on this thread who has been personally impacted by the scenario in question. I am not sure who are the posters in the past, but I believe this statement is false. Britta is not the only person impacted by this but one of many. Anyone USMS member who swam in the meets listed below and some of these swimmers were National Team members at the time of swim impacted both USMS Records and Number 1 USMS Top Ten Times. Rather than list all of the swimmers, I have linked the meets so people can see all of the swimmers and some of the them are current or past USA Swimming National Team members.
www.usms.org/.../meet.phpwww.usms.org/.../meet.phpwww.usms.org/.../meet.phpwww.usms.org/.../meet.php
As an aside; it looks like Jendrick’s Olympic Trials time is the record for the 100 *** (1:09.81), but her 200 *** at the same meet (2:34.09) isn’t. Did someone forget to measure the pool after the 200BR?
This statement is false. All of the Olympic Trials times were counted for USMS National Records and if swimmers did not request them to count for either Top Ten or National Records, then those are the only times that would not show up. The 2:34.09 was the record until this year and Justine Mueller broke that record with a time of 2:29.80 and she also broke the 100 *** Record of 1:09.81 with a time of 1:09.10. I see that Britta is currently 2nd in both those events in the 2013 LCM prelim top ten but is first in the 50 *** just like 2012 so she selected All American for her efforts.
Eugene Godsoe, is an example of a current National Team member breaking a USMS National Record in the 100 LCM Free in the 18-24 age group by an USMS swimmer named Noah Copeland, who is not a USA National Team member. But then Josh Schneider broke his record, and I am not sure if he is a USA National Team member, but he is an NCAA Champion, which in my book is equal status. The bottom line in all this is that this has been happening for years and its not an isolated incident to one swimmer
Note – Britta may be the only person posting on this thread who has been personally impacted by the scenario in question. I am not sure who are the posters in the past, but I believe this statement is false. Britta is not the only person impacted by this but one of many. Anyone USMS member who swam in the meets listed below and some of these swimmers were National Team members at the time of swim impacted both USMS Records and Number 1 USMS Top Ten Times. Rather than list all of the swimmers, I have linked the meets so people can see all of the swimmers and some of the them are current or past USA Swimming National Team members.
www.usms.org/.../meet.phpwww.usms.org/.../meet.phpwww.usms.org/.../meet.phpwww.usms.org/.../meet.php
As an aside; it looks like Jendrick’s Olympic Trials time is the record for the 100 *** (1:09.81), but her 200 *** at the same meet (2:34.09) isn’t. Did someone forget to measure the pool after the 200BR?
This statement is false. All of the Olympic Trials times were counted for USMS National Records and if swimmers did not request them to count for either Top Ten or National Records, then those are the only times that would not show up. The 2:34.09 was the record until this year and Justine Mueller broke that record with a time of 2:29.80 and she also broke the 100 *** Record of 1:09.81 with a time of 1:09.10. I see that Britta is currently 2nd in both those events in the 2013 LCM prelim top ten but is first in the 50 *** just like 2012 so she selected All American for her efforts.
Eugene Godsoe, is an example of a current National Team member breaking a USMS National Record in the 100 LCM Free in the 18-24 age group by an USMS swimmer named Noah Copeland, who is not a USA National Team member. But then Josh Schneider broke his record, and I am not sure if he is a USA National Team member, but he is an NCAA Champion, which in my book is equal status. The bottom line in all this is that this has been happening for years and its not an isolated incident to one swimmer
