In the thread on retirement communities with masters clubs, @pwb mentioned Saddlebrooke. While looking at their site, something wacky occurred to me. I thought I would throw it out there before reason got the better of me.
Maybe USMS should give an annual award to the club with the greatest average age of the swimmers who competed during the year. I think you could easily compute the average age by (for each club/workout group/LMSC, whatever) summing the swimmers' ages for each splash, then dividing by the total number of splashes by that club. If you wanted to get all fancy about it, you could probably factor in the distance of the swims as well, so that (for example) a 1650 swum by an 89yo would count more than a 200 by a 45yo. You could also include Postal Swims in consideration of the award, not just regular swim meets.
I am grateful and counting on you, Kurt, to do two things for me as we age (not so gracefully) and (most likely) continue to compete side-by-side no matter what part of the country we race in:
1) Use those fabulous ER skills on me ... should I ever need them ...
If Kurt is swimming in the next lane over do you expect him to stop and help you or should he finish the race first?
There are some (very few) like Maurine Kornfeld, who at 93 swam a sub-22 minute 1000 at nationals last month. Mo is such an inspiration and she may be the only human over 90 who could swim the 10K.
Personal note – my mother had a pretty good 500 for an 85 year old, but she couldn’t keep pace with Maurine.
I know a human being that is over 90 and could rival Maurine. She retired from competitive swimming when she had to take care of her husband and wanted to retire because after being inducted into the ISHOF in 2010, there really was not any challenges anymore. You can read about who I am talking about on page 8 of the Michigan Masters newsletter linked here:
www.michiganmasters.com/.../2013EOY_V2.pdf
Well, that may be your opinion. There was a great number of upset people after somebody coded at an Arizona State Meet a few years ago. While I have no problem running the code, some might say it's selfish to try to perform things you are possibly too old to accomplish. People also seemed to be grateful that my expertise as an ER physician was on hand. Interesting you would accuse somebody who has devoted his life to helping people of being selfish but if I listened to people like you...well I would be you.
I don't think you are selfish,but I know some great swimmers over 80 and even 85 who can do a pretty good mile or 3.
That is one of the most selfish posts I have ever read. Advanced age is no reason to discourage competition at any distance.
Well, that may be your opinion. There was a great number of upset people after somebody coded at an Arizona State Meet a few years ago. While I have no problem running the code, some might say it's selfish to try to perform things you are possibly too old to accomplish. People also seemed to be grateful that my expertise as an ER physician was on hand. Interesting you would accuse somebody who has devoted his life to helping people of being selfish but if I listened to people like you...well I would be you.
I don't think you are selfish,but I know some great swimmers over 80 and even 85 who can do a pretty good mile or 3.There are some (very few) like Maurine Kornfeld, who at 93 swam a sub-22 minute 1000 at nationals last month. Mo is such an inspiration and she may be the only human over 90 who could swim the 10K.
Personal note – my mother had a pretty good 500 for an 85 year old, but she couldn’t keep pace with Maurine.
That is one of the most selfish posts I have ever read. Advanced age is no reason to discourage competition at any distance.
Sounds like the voice of reason, coming from somebody with first hand experience and knowledge.
The most selfish posts are surely located somewhere within a sandbagging thread. :outtahere: :worms:
I guess with all that spare time everybody has...:)...and I'm not sure we should encourage 89 year-olds to do the mile or the 10K postal unless you like running codes or don't mind leaving the pool at midnight.
Hear hear! I hate doing CPR on the pool deck! And I hate fishing people out of the deep end with all my clothes on too.
I guess with all that spare time everybody has...:)...and I'm not sure we should encourage 89 year-olds to do the mile or the 10K postal unless you like running codes or don't mind leaving the pool at midnight.
It's not like old folks have a monopoly on foolhardy risk-taking. Though I agree that taking a very long time to swim a distance event at some point becomes a tad selfish.
