Idea: North American V. Europe MASTERS dual in Iceland

Have the meet sometime around the summer solstice when there's nearly 24 hours of daylight!

I'm in, but only if it's SCM and early in 2017, when I've turned 50 by FINA years, but not yet by real years ;) I'm thinking January so we can get the full-on Ice-land experience. And then an open water swim!

Yep! I've been to Greenland, and it was mostly brown land and iceberg-dotted seas. There is not much green in Greenland! you do know the vikings named it wrongly on purpose to confuse others, right?

Hi Ken, What a wonderful idea! So inspirational. I have been organizing an international swimming competition called the EU Swim (www.euswim.org) for the past 8 years. It was actually featured in Swimmer Magazine in January 2011: www.euswim.org/.../swimmer_mag_article_2011.pdf. I first started the competition in Paris in 2006 (I studied there for 3 years) and the idea was to bring together swimmers of all ages and levels to meet, compete and share their interests. Since Paris, I've worked with a host club in a different country each year, most recently in Tallinn, Estonia with 430 swimmers participating from 10 countries. We've seen swimmers of all ages, including quite a few Masters swimmers! We operate on the same first-come, first-served idea that you have proposed. For your idea, you could look to work with a masters team (or maybe even several teams) in the Reykjavik area, as well as the Icelandic Swimming Association. They could do the groundwork in terms of organization and logistics and also find sponsors. On the US side, you could work with USMS in terms of getting sponsorships, promotions and stir up interest. I'd be more than happy to promote the competition through the EU Swim site. We have a newsletter that goes out to readers in about 30 countries, which provides a great forum for getting ideas across. And if you need anything else, or want to exchange some ideas, just let me know!

I like the idea, but then I like the idea of going to Europeans and Worlds. Like so many, don't go because of time and money. I believe that masters swimming would be so much stronger with proper international representation and recognition from our federations, and with funded teams. If you had to go to the national long course to qualify, but had a shot at being on a funded team to the world's, then the nationals (which Lc are not that well attended in the UK) would be a much better meet.... Similarly, this idea would be great if there was funding and proper representative honours. But British Swimming isn't interested in putting anything back into masters, we're just here to subsidise age group/senior swimming with our membership and inflated meet fees. Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant... Rob, you bring up some interesting points, but from my own experience there are some downsides to federation funding and involvement that need to be considered. One of the aspects I enjoy about US Masters Swimming is the fact that, although there are a variety of different levels of swimmers participating at large meets such as nationals or Worlds, anyone can participate. Although participation is not funded, many local LMSCs or teams do their own fundraising to be able to get a team together. If you begin to include heavy funding and federation involvement, you may lose control of participation. Having a selected, federation-funded team also means that very few besides that specific, elite team will be able to achieve importance, and represent their country on the international level. Federations do need to be involved - to approve a competition, to provide the necessary insurance and sometimes to officiate the competition. But even if the federation's involvement is minimal, it is more than possible to have a successful competition in the true spirit of masters swimming - open to all and with none of the red tape or limitations that come with being funded.

I like the idea, but then I like the idea of going to Europeans and Worlds. Like so many, don't go because of time and money. I believe that masters swimming would be so much stronger with proper international representation and recognition from our federations, and with funded teams. If you had to go to the national long course to qualify, but had a shot at being on a funded team to the world's, then the nationals (which Lc are not that well attended in the UK) would be a much better meet.... Similarly, this idea would be great if there was funding and proper representative honours. But British Swimming isn't interested in putting anything back into masters, we're just here to subsidise age group/senior swimming with our membership and inflated meet fees. Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant...

I think it sounds like a fantastic idea. Iceland is amazing. though you'd be hard pressed to get me away from the museums, hotsprings and hikes and into the pool. The only thing we'd have to be careful on is letting any of the locals try to feed us Icelandic specialities - you could get something lovely and tasty, or you could get rotted shark :-)

A group of masters from Ft. Lauderdale went to a meet in Iceland a couple of yrs. ago. Facebook pics made it look like a blast.