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 think the reason some people feel the way they do here is because this swimmer has come here before and complained about the current process. This has happened in the past, now in the present, and will continue in the future unless there is a USMS Rule change defining Elite Swimmers and how they should not be eligible to swim in masters and get records and top tens. This same subject was brought up last year and I have linked the thread and the discussion starts at post 29.
forums.usms.org/showthread.php
From the current poll, I don't know if it would be worth it to try for a USMS Rule change, but we all will have to live with this if there is no change in the future.
to my defense when I had questions about the topic you posted: the preliminary TT were posted. Then, when the final lists came out, they had suddenly added swims from Trials. I was then told that all swimmers at Trials registered with USMS were automatically approached and asked if they wanted their times to count or not. All they had to do is answer to an email with "yes" or "no".
since all this happened "so late in the Game" I think my question in the linked thread was definitely legit and not meant as a complain, rather than a "what just happened" reaction.
We will never have an equal playing field in USMS and no matter what rules are done, changed, bent, broken, etc, somebody will always have something to say. It adds to a great discussion, which in my mind was the purpose of this thread. What bothers me in this entire Forum though is that if one person has a different opinion than the majority, that person is automatically thrown under the bus rather than take different opinions as an invitation to discuss on a level that I would expect from mature people.
I think the reason some people feel the way they do here is because this swimmer has come here before and complained about the current process. This has happened in the past, now in the present, and will continue in the future unless there is a USMS Rule change defining Elite Swimmers and how they should not be eligible to swim in masters and get records and top tens. This same subject was brought up last year and I have linked the thread and the discussion starts at post 29.
forums.usms.org/showthread.php
From the current poll, I don't know if it would be worth it to try for a USMS Rule change, but we all will have to live with this if there is no change in the future.
to my defense when I had questions about the topic you posted: the preliminary TT were posted. Then, when the final lists came out, they had suddenly added swims from Trials. I was then told that all swimmers at Trials registered with USMS were automatically approached and asked if they wanted their times to count or not. All they had to do is answer to an email with "yes" or "no".
since all this happened "so late in the Game" I think my question in the linked thread was definitely legit and not meant as a complain, rather than a "what just happened" reaction.
We will never have an equal playing field in USMS and no matter what rules are done, changed, bent, broken, etc, somebody will always have something to say. It adds to a great discussion, which in my mind was the purpose of this thread. What bothers me in this entire Forum though is that if one person has a different opinion than the majority, that person is automatically thrown under the bus rather than take different opinions as an invitation to discuss on a level that I would expect from mature people.
