I am looking for a list of Olympian Masters and what Olympics and events they particpated in. If you have such a list or know where one is, please let me know. Individual anecdotes are OK too.
Background:
I want to write to "Splash" magazine and ask them to feature some of the people on such a list when they write about great swimmers. I'm tired of reading (and having my kids read) about so-and-so great swimmer, who got to the Olympics, did great, and now swimming is behind them (i.e. they don't swim anymore). On the "mission statement" of Splash, they give lip service to a lifelong involvement with swimming, but they never seem to come up with an example of such a person.
wiredknight
Parents
Former Member
Carl:
That is the one and only and same swimmer, Mark Spitz. I know someone on the UCLA team and they said he showed up at practice and swimmers were swimming this and he really didn't really want to do it. He did it as part of a practice session and that is the result of that. I don't think he was serious about this and did it as a fitness swim. I give him credit for doing it and turning it in.
I do remember in 1989 of Mark Spitz trying to get in shape and make a comeback. I do not believe that he never ever swam competitively in either a Sanctioned USA or USS swimming meet as it was called or a USMS Masters meet at the time. He was 39 at the time and the USMS Record for the 100 Meter Fly for the 35-39 age group was held by Freddy Schlicher at :58.5 and I was wondering if Mark could get close or break that record.
In the 2 year period, he got his time down to :58.03, which would be a great USMS time and World Record in Masters swimming. However, he was a far cry from the :55.59 Olympic Trial qualifing time and the :54.27 time he did that won the gold medal for the 100 Meter Fly in 1972. This was still pretty amazing because he took 17 years off of swimming competition.
Bottom line from all of this is that if he wants to I sure he would be an excellent masters competitior but he probably does not want to be and that is ok to.
By the way I saw that you swam for Ohio State University and went to see if you knew a friend of mine that I swam with in High School. I went to this site here www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/.../osumswimrecords.pdf
and could not find you. I am not saying you are an impostor but maybe they don't have you down as a letter winner. I see some Masters swimmers that I know and compete against in USMS like George Schmidt and Lonnie Harrison. I also see USMS Executive Director Todd Smith there.
Well, unfortunately I didn't letter ( I was a scrub) and Carl Spackler is Bill Murray's character in Caddyshack not my real name. I'm one of "those people" that uses an alias on message boards. Thanks for all the feedback on Spitz everyone. I had kind of figured he was just doing a workout swim or something.
I didn't mean to imply that 3990 was "bad", but since my PB was 4440 when I was 50, I couldn't believe that I had beaten Mark Spitz . No doubt if he trained for it and gave even a moderate effort, he would be dusting us all. Well, except Jim McConica. ( Didn't McConica just miss the 72 Olympics in the 200 free? )
Feel free to PM me about your friend. I saw a lot of familiar names on the link. Thanks for that.
Carl:
That is the one and only and same swimmer, Mark Spitz. I know someone on the UCLA team and they said he showed up at practice and swimmers were swimming this and he really didn't really want to do it. He did it as part of a practice session and that is the result of that. I don't think he was serious about this and did it as a fitness swim. I give him credit for doing it and turning it in.
I do remember in 1989 of Mark Spitz trying to get in shape and make a comeback. I do not believe that he never ever swam competitively in either a Sanctioned USA or USS swimming meet as it was called or a USMS Masters meet at the time. He was 39 at the time and the USMS Record for the 100 Meter Fly for the 35-39 age group was held by Freddy Schlicher at :58.5 and I was wondering if Mark could get close or break that record.
In the 2 year period, he got his time down to :58.03, which would be a great USMS time and World Record in Masters swimming. However, he was a far cry from the :55.59 Olympic Trial qualifing time and the :54.27 time he did that won the gold medal for the 100 Meter Fly in 1972. This was still pretty amazing because he took 17 years off of swimming competition.
Bottom line from all of this is that if he wants to I sure he would be an excellent masters competitior but he probably does not want to be and that is ok to.
By the way I saw that you swam for Ohio State University and went to see if you knew a friend of mine that I swam with in High School. I went to this site here www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/.../osumswimrecords.pdf
and could not find you. I am not saying you are an impostor but maybe they don't have you down as a letter winner. I see some Masters swimmers that I know and compete against in USMS like George Schmidt and Lonnie Harrison. I also see USMS Executive Director Todd Smith there.
Well, unfortunately I didn't letter ( I was a scrub) and Carl Spackler is Bill Murray's character in Caddyshack not my real name. I'm one of "those people" that uses an alias on message boards. Thanks for all the feedback on Spitz everyone. I had kind of figured he was just doing a workout swim or something.
I didn't mean to imply that 3990 was "bad", but since my PB was 4440 when I was 50, I couldn't believe that I had beaten Mark Spitz . No doubt if he trained for it and gave even a moderate effort, he would be dusting us all. Well, except Jim McConica. ( Didn't McConica just miss the 72 Olympics in the 200 free? )
Feel free to PM me about your friend. I saw a lot of familiar names on the link. Thanks for that.
