Call me an old fashioned cynic, but Gary Hall's oh so exclusive "Race Club" seems to generate more amusement than intimidation. To review the bidding for those with real lives, Mr. Hall announced a few months ago his intent to form his own club dedicated to elite swimming. It has a fabulous location and training facility in the Florida Keys. It will cover travel, training and living expenses. (I'm tempted to ask who is fronting the money, but I won't denigrade Mr. Hall's ability to raise funds.) If you want to join them, send in a resume; don't call us; we'll call you. Let us look over your accoplishments and decide whether you are worthy.
Hmm, great facilities, don't have to share pool time with the non-world class members (i.e. 99%) of a Swim Club, just about all expenses paid. Unless you have your own lucrative endorsement deal, what swimmer wouldn't want to join this team?
Well, the initial members of the "Swim Club" were announced last week. www.swiminfo.com/.../6097.asp Eight Olympians sounds real impressive. But then you look at the list a little more closely. Eleven swimmers, and although I have not googled everyone of them, all of the ones I have googled are in their late 20's or older. Or in other words, 3 of the 11 swimmers are chronologically at the back end of their careers, and they have not yet made their nation's Olympic Team. Closer scrutiny reveals 10 of the 11 are men. Just about all of them swim the 50 free or 50 fly, and few of them seriously compete in anything other that the 50 or 100 free or fly. In contrast to the lack of age, gender and event diversity, the team does have members of many nationalities and ethic backgrounds. However, the most telling stat of all is that roughly half of the members I checked are not currently ranked in the World Top 20 Rankings, LCM or SCM, in any event.
Overall, the "Swim Club" sort of reminds me of the kind of team a rookie fantasy league coach would assemble--there are a lot of names you would recognize, but their most productive years may be behind them. To be fair, all of these folks are amazing, world-class swimmers. Their careers to date have been awesome, and they remain extraordinary today by any standard, except arguably World Rankings. In contrast, I am an opinionated loud mouth. I would be delighted to see them find new speed and light up the scoreboards next year with medals and records, and make a complete monkey of me. As of right now, I think may the "Swim Club's" gloss may have exceeded its actual capabilities.
Matt
Parents
Former Member
Just an opinion, but the whole thing reeks of elitism. Haven't heard one word from John Leonard about how this benefits the US National Team. Outside of Shoeman (and this is personal opinion here), none of these guys will medal in the 50. Hall will be lucky to be 4th in the 50 and Foster won't make the final. BTW, by concentrating on solely 50's (which is expected for many of these people), their efforts don't seem to be helping their teams and countries in the big picture: there are no 200 relays, only 400's and again, outside of Shoeman, I don't think that Hall and Foster are going to help the relay cause. We became a country of sprinters in the 80's and with the addition of 50's to the World stage and 200 relays to the National one, we have further widened the gap between ourselves and everyone swimming 400s and above. There will always be sprinters for us, but more of the Eric Vendt's, Chris Thompson's, and Brooke Bennett's are what we need...again, all opinion, and as a sprinter, I think I am seeing this clearly. This doesn't help anyone on a grand scale; only the few who are chummy with Hall and can afford it.
Just an opinion, but the whole thing reeks of elitism. Haven't heard one word from John Leonard about how this benefits the US National Team. Outside of Shoeman (and this is personal opinion here), none of these guys will medal in the 50. Hall will be lucky to be 4th in the 50 and Foster won't make the final. BTW, by concentrating on solely 50's (which is expected for many of these people), their efforts don't seem to be helping their teams and countries in the big picture: there are no 200 relays, only 400's and again, outside of Shoeman, I don't think that Hall and Foster are going to help the relay cause. We became a country of sprinters in the 80's and with the addition of 50's to the World stage and 200 relays to the National one, we have further widened the gap between ourselves and everyone swimming 400s and above. There will always be sprinters for us, but more of the Eric Vendt's, Chris Thompson's, and Brooke Bennett's are what we need...again, all opinion, and as a sprinter, I think I am seeing this clearly. This doesn't help anyone on a grand scale; only the few who are chummy with Hall and can afford it.
