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?
But, if I see that 1-3 current National Team Members, who compete for much more than USMS TT and records, are on the list, I don't think they should be there.
Could you please name the 1 to 3 current National Team members? Justine Mueller is listed but I don't see any results from any National Team meets. Perhaps she qualified next year. Megan Jendrick is currently not on the list. I see some other swimmers that were listed ahead of you from USA National Meets but they were not National Team members.
www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx
Overall, I swam once next to Maria Moravchova at the World Cup. She set a FINA World Record in the lane right next to me. It was the 100 IM and after the 25 fly I only saw her feet. It was one of the best races I have ever been part of.I still remember it to the day.
You must be talking about Swimming here and not Masters Swimming because I know that FINA World Cup are not sanctioning masters meets even though FINA sanctions them. They are FINA Swimming sanctioned meets. I don't know what this statement has to do with our discussion other than to see YES you are good enough to swim in FINA World Cup meets against the best competition out there. Maria Moravchova has set FINA Masters World Records but not in this instance and swam them in NGB Sanctioned masters meets
But, if I see that 1-3 current National Team Members, who compete for much more than USMS TT and records, are on the list, I don't think they should be there.
Could you please name the 1 to 3 current National Team members? Justine Mueller is listed but I don't see any results from any National Team meets. Perhaps she qualified next year. Megan Jendrick is currently not on the list. I see some other swimmers that were listed ahead of you from USA National Meets but they were not National Team members.
www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx
Overall, I swam once next to Maria Moravchova at the World Cup. She set a FINA World Record in the lane right next to me. It was the 100 IM and after the 25 fly I only saw her feet. It was one of the best races I have ever been part of.I still remember it to the day.
You must be talking about Swimming here and not Masters Swimming because I know that FINA World Cup are not sanctioning masters meets even though FINA sanctions them. They are FINA Swimming sanctioned meets. I don't know what this statement has to do with our discussion other than to see YES you are good enough to swim in FINA World Cup meets against the best competition out there. Maria Moravchova has set FINA Masters World Records but not in this instance and swam them in NGB Sanctioned masters meets
