Hypothetical question: can a hypothetical French citizen set hypothetical national records swimming for a hypothetical American team?
Speaking as a Registrar, if somebody registers with USMS would I be expected to have all swimmers provide proof of US citizenship in order to process their registrations? Otherwise how would I know they are foreign citizens or not? I would guess we would also require any new swimmers to register by paper so they could mail in proof of citizenship and/or change the online system to allow uploads of that data and then have the Registrar decide if the documentation was legit or not. If we went down that road, we'd need to also authenticate the current 50k+ members of USMS (and then only do that for new swimmers).
As a swimmer who may be in the same age group as a hypothetical example (and swim many of the same events!), I know how you feel but I also don't know how we could implement anything different than what are currently doing.
I think the issue comes more into play for Spring Nationals because for Summer Nationals these hypothetical swimmers are more likely to represent their "home" country so they are eligible to break meters' records for their "home" country. That is, if you are registered both USMS and with your "home" country you can pick which registration to use for the meet (i.e. you cannot represent both). Assuming they pick their "home" country, then they are eligible for awards at Nationals but not All-American, Top Ten or USMS records (but are eligible to break records back home).
USMS Rule 104.5.7A states all top finishers will be given awards regardless of nationality, and then 104.5.7B explains the patches (for first place). That would be a rule somebody could propose a change where a foreign swimmer would not be eligible to receive a patch (and perhaps the next fastest USMS swimmer in that event would receive the patch?). That sort of proposal would only apply if the top swimmer entered the meet under their foreign registration (which hypothetically doesn't always happen).
Jeff Roddin
PV Registrar
Hypothetical question: can a hypothetical French citizen set hypothetical national records swimming for a hypothetical American team?
Speaking as a Registrar, if somebody registers with USMS would I be expected to have all swimmers provide proof of US citizenship in order to process their registrations? Otherwise how would I know they are foreign citizens or not? I would guess we would also require any new swimmers to register by paper so they could mail in proof of citizenship and/or change the online system to allow uploads of that data and then have the Registrar decide if the documentation was legit or not. If we went down that road, we'd need to also authenticate the current 50k+ members of USMS (and then only do that for new swimmers).
As a swimmer who may be in the same age group as a hypothetical example (and swim many of the same events!), I know how you feel but I also don't know how we could implement anything different than what are currently doing.
I think the issue comes more into play for Spring Nationals because for Summer Nationals these hypothetical swimmers are more likely to represent their "home" country so they are eligible to break meters' records for their "home" country. That is, if you are registered both USMS and with your "home" country you can pick which registration to use for the meet (i.e. you cannot represent both). Assuming they pick their "home" country, then they are eligible for awards at Nationals but not All-American, Top Ten or USMS records (but are eligible to break records back home).
USMS Rule 104.5.7A states all top finishers will be given awards regardless of nationality, and then 104.5.7B explains the patches (for first place). That would be a rule somebody could propose a change where a foreign swimmer would not be eligible to receive a patch (and perhaps the next fastest USMS swimmer in that event would receive the patch?). That sort of proposal would only apply if the top swimmer entered the meet under their foreign registration (which hypothetically doesn't always happen).
Jeff Roddin
PV Registrar
