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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You can make a pretty good case that USMS is more inclusive than some of the other masters record tabulating groups. As Rob pointed out earlier, USMS will recognize a record set by a USMS registered swimmer competing in a USS meet. FINA does not.
I also think the earlier post about "when is the fastest time the fastest" wasn't an arguement for trying to determine the truly "fastest" time. People who compile records do not make that claim. The only claim is that it was the fastest swim reported in a sanctioned meet.
In my somewhat limited experience the existence of five year wonders is an illusion. I swim with some truly gifted swimmers that set/break records on a five year basis. Some of these masters do not swim in meets all year round for all five years. HOWEVER, they do swim enough not to "lose it" and some train quite hard but pretty much give meets a miss due to other issues (family, work, open water venues, other sports, etc). It's my opinion that except for their extraordinary talent (they have it most of us don't) they truly exemplify masters swimming because they stay in the water and enjoy it for the rest of their lives.
You can make a pretty good case that USMS is more inclusive than some of the other masters record tabulating groups. As Rob pointed out earlier, USMS will recognize a record set by a USMS registered swimmer competing in a USS meet. FINA does not.
I also think the earlier post about "when is the fastest time the fastest" wasn't an arguement for trying to determine the truly "fastest" time. People who compile records do not make that claim. The only claim is that it was the fastest swim reported in a sanctioned meet.
In my somewhat limited experience the existence of five year wonders is an illusion. I swim with some truly gifted swimmers that set/break records on a five year basis. Some of these masters do not swim in meets all year round for all five years. HOWEVER, they do swim enough not to "lose it" and some train quite hard but pretty much give meets a miss due to other issues (family, work, open water venues, other sports, etc). It's my opinion that except for their extraordinary talent (they have it most of us don't) they truly exemplify masters swimming because they stay in the water and enjoy it for the rest of their lives.
