Aside from the affected meet hosts, the real losers of this dilemma are the swimmers from the two affected SCM meets who stand to lose their placing in the USMS Top Ten. In short order, R&T will release the 2001 SCM Top Ten and we’ll discover who was denied placement on the list because their worthy performances were conducted in pools they believed were legitimate for sanctioned competition.
I do not yet know if I will be one of those people, but I expect to be. You might remember the story of my 1500m Freestyle that turned into the 1550m Freestyle (or rather the 1498.7m Freestyle that was the 1548.68m Freestyle) at the NWZ meet. My time was 19:04.76, a 50-second improvement from my previous lifetime best. (The 19:55 swim as well as a 20:05 swim both put me into the SCM Top Ten in those years)
Many folks in the discussion forums have sounded off about how important they view the Top-Ten rankings. I’ll simply say that in my case, if I had been told by the meet director before my 1500m Freestyle that the pool was less than 25m long, I probably would not have swam the event. There was no other swimmer in my age group at the NWZ meet. My “competition” was the other 30-34-year-olds nationwide.
The impending ruling by the EC could very likely demand that I and other swimmers at the affected SCM meets make a sacrifice for the betterment of USMS. Honestly, I do not know what greater good is supposed to result from locking out certain swimmers from the Top Ten. I do not even know if this sacrifice is even necessary.
The EC certainly is considering the relationship between USMS and its swimmers in making its judgment. It is inevitable that some swimmers will be affected negatively by whatever “final” decision the EC renders. My contention through all of this has been that (1) deserving swimmers ought to be appropriately recognized for there outstanding achievements, and (2) that if we must do harm to swimmers and strain the USMS-to-swimmer relationship, we affect the least amount of harm upon the least number of swimmers. I’m glad that we are soon to be bringing this matter to a close, but I do think that this decision does harm to more people than necessary, as well as to the wrong people.
If it turns out that the 10th place 30-34 swimmer went slower than 19:04.76, I will be happy to congratulate him publicly and acknowledge that he earned his position. If there is any kind of positive outcome from all of this that I can guarantee, this is it.
Phil,
The swimmer your talking about in your FINA story was Tim Mckee, the great swimmer from the Univ. of Florida and USA, in the 400 IM in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, against Gunner Larsson from Long Beach State and swimming for the country of Sweden. You are right in your story. This race would go down as one of the closest in Olympic history and result in an international rule change. Both swimmers were clocked at 4:31.98 exact time to the hundredth. The timing device, which was by Omega was dismantled and upon inspection was found that Larson had touched two-thousandths of a second ahead of Mckee so officials determined Larson won and he was awarded the Gold medal. What was strange is that both swimmers were listed with the identical time in the record books.
After the Olympics it was argued that pool walls and lanes could vary slightly making it unfair to measure time to the thousandth of a second. This is the only swimming race in Olympic history this has happened (tieing to the hundreth) and not awarding two Gold medals. It happened two times since then in the Olympics, the recent one being the Gary Hall and Anthony Ervin 50 Meter Free in 2000, and in the Women's 100 Free in 1984, with Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer. All four of these swimmers were awarded the Gold Medal.
One of my friends and Michigan Masters teammates, Larry Day (World Record Holder in the 100 and 200 Meter Fly 50-54) is currently representing Tim as an Attorney to get FINA to overturn this decision and award him a Gold Medal. Like anything the wheels of justice move slow and its very hard to overturn anything regarding the Olympics with FINA. This goes for Rick Demont, 1976 Olympic Women that were awarded silver medals against the East German women, namely Shirley Babashoff, and others.
I saw Tim McKee at the 1983 Short Course Nationals, in fact he swam as a masters swimmer and won the 400 IM, keeping Jim McConica from sweeping 1st place in 6 events in taking 2nd place in the 400 IM and winning by .69 seconds over Jim. I think he still lives in Fort Lauderdale but has not competed in many years.
Phil,
The swimmer your talking about in your FINA story was Tim Mckee, the great swimmer from the Univ. of Florida and USA, in the 400 IM in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, against Gunner Larsson from Long Beach State and swimming for the country of Sweden. You are right in your story. This race would go down as one of the closest in Olympic history and result in an international rule change. Both swimmers were clocked at 4:31.98 exact time to the hundredth. The timing device, which was by Omega was dismantled and upon inspection was found that Larson had touched two-thousandths of a second ahead of Mckee so officials determined Larson won and he was awarded the Gold medal. What was strange is that both swimmers were listed with the identical time in the record books.
After the Olympics it was argued that pool walls and lanes could vary slightly making it unfair to measure time to the thousandth of a second. This is the only swimming race in Olympic history this has happened (tieing to the hundreth) and not awarding two Gold medals. It happened two times since then in the Olympics, the recent one being the Gary Hall and Anthony Ervin 50 Meter Free in 2000, and in the Women's 100 Free in 1984, with Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer. All four of these swimmers were awarded the Gold Medal.
One of my friends and Michigan Masters teammates, Larry Day (World Record Holder in the 100 and 200 Meter Fly 50-54) is currently representing Tim as an Attorney to get FINA to overturn this decision and award him a Gold Medal. Like anything the wheels of justice move slow and its very hard to overturn anything regarding the Olympics with FINA. This goes for Rick Demont, 1976 Olympic Women that were awarded silver medals against the East German women, namely Shirley Babashoff, and others.
I saw Tim McKee at the 1983 Short Course Nationals, in fact he swam as a masters swimmer and won the 400 IM, keeping Jim McConica from sweeping 1st place in 6 events in taking 2nd place in the 400 IM and winning by .69 seconds over Jim. I think he still lives in Fort Lauderdale but has not competed in many years.
