I'll say one thing for this magazine, interspersed between all of the hero-worship articles are some that cover subjects with real meat. In the last few issues are articles about foreign swimmers with American college scholarships, the conflict between USS and high-school swimming, eating disorders among swimmers, and (the lack of) racial diversity in the sport.
These are real issues to the sport.
Wouldn't it be nice if this group discussed some of these?
Parents
Former Member
Rick,
It's unrealistic to think of swimming as a "team" sport in the same sense as football or basketball. It falls under the same category as track and field, wrestling, golf or any number of other high school sports in that they are largely made up of individual performers (with the exception of relays) who are a team in name only.
The Tennessee State Meet was this past weekend and the finalists were all "ringers", as you call them. No matter how you cut it, no non-USA swimmer is going to swim a 4:22 500 free as the men's winner did. And without all of our USA swimmers in the State Meet, where are they going to find enough qualified officials to run it?
Maybe is't unfortunate that non-USA swimmers have no chance to place, and rarely ever see their USA swimming counterparts, but most schools requirements to earn a varsity letter are based more on participation in practic and achieving State qualifying times which are not very difficult.
My daughter chose not to swim High School this year. The points she could have scored would have been helpful so I wonder if the non-USA swimmers would have welcomed a little help from another "ringer" to boost the team's chances.
Rick,
It's unrealistic to think of swimming as a "team" sport in the same sense as football or basketball. It falls under the same category as track and field, wrestling, golf or any number of other high school sports in that they are largely made up of individual performers (with the exception of relays) who are a team in name only.
The Tennessee State Meet was this past weekend and the finalists were all "ringers", as you call them. No matter how you cut it, no non-USA swimmer is going to swim a 4:22 500 free as the men's winner did. And without all of our USA swimmers in the State Meet, where are they going to find enough qualified officials to run it?
Maybe is't unfortunate that non-USA swimmers have no chance to place, and rarely ever see their USA swimming counterparts, but most schools requirements to earn a varsity letter are based more on participation in practic and achieving State qualifying times which are not very difficult.
My daughter chose not to swim High School this year. The points she could have scored would have been helpful so I wonder if the non-USA swimmers would have welcomed a little help from another "ringer" to boost the team's chances.
