This is somewhat related to another post I just started (Top Ten conerns). I noticed in the top ten list a number of swimmers (generally very fast swimmers) who swam their first nationals (or any other masters meet) in 5 years due to being in a new age group. I state this by looking at the past few years top ten lists and not seeing their names. Is this a good thing for masters swimming? Swimmers whose only affiliation with masters swimming is showing up to one meet every 5 years to break a record. These records should be owned by people that are true masters swimmers.
What is a true masters swimmers?- Perhaps doing a few meets a year might work. When I swam on an age group team as a child, I know in order to qualify for our championship meet, we had to swim at least 3 regular meets. Perhaps a rule like that for Nationals could begin to fix this problem-
If not, many of our national records will be held by "ringers"
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I bet that most of these every 5 year record swimmers are in the older age groups. Try doing that in the age groups in the 30's and 40's. In my age group there are women that can do the 100 meter breastroke around 1:22 if they have a really good meet. That means that when they were younger back in the 1970's they were not that far from national time standard. People like Laura Val and Ms Pipes don't have to swim every five years since they are in great shape for their ages and have retain much of their speed from their younger days. As for high school records, my high school didn't recognize them for girls in the 1970's and I might have still had the 100 yard butterfly and 100 yard breastroke if they did . There were about only 3 girls in 30 years at that high school that swam year round.
I bet that most of these every 5 year record swimmers are in the older age groups. Try doing that in the age groups in the 30's and 40's. In my age group there are women that can do the 100 meter breastroke around 1:22 if they have a really good meet. That means that when they were younger back in the 1970's they were not that far from national time standard. People like Laura Val and Ms Pipes don't have to swim every five years since they are in great shape for their ages and have retain much of their speed from their younger days. As for high school records, my high school didn't recognize them for girls in the 1970's and I might have still had the 100 yard butterfly and 100 yard breastroke if they did . There were about only 3 girls in 30 years at that high school that swam year round.
