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
Hmmmm. Trying to bring publicity to swimming, what a horrible thing. Lets all sit in our pools do our thing and not try to let anyone else in. In fact throw away the key.
This is a free country and if they want to promote the passion they have for swimming let them do it. If they fail, they fail. But don't tell me having these former world class athletes (your opinion) trying to do something in the public eye for swimming is a bad thing. We don't get the attention we deserve.
If you have some personal vendetta against Gary Hall (for whatever reason) deal with it. But don't use this forum to landbast them as bad for the sport especially with your so called disclaimer. If you know Jon Olson, you would also know he would not associate himself as the head coach if this were not a worthwhile endeavour.
By the way, the fact that there is only one woman on the team is a problem is laughable. I wonder how you feel about collegiate swim teams that train separately. i.e. University of Texas and Stanford must be some of the worst swimming programs you know since the men and women train separately.
I hope I am not being to personal here, I do not mean to take personal shots. I just truly believe any good publicity in our sport is a good thing.
Hmmmm. Trying to bring publicity to swimming, what a horrible thing. Lets all sit in our pools do our thing and not try to let anyone else in. In fact throw away the key.
This is a free country and if they want to promote the passion they have for swimming let them do it. If they fail, they fail. But don't tell me having these former world class athletes (your opinion) trying to do something in the public eye for swimming is a bad thing. We don't get the attention we deserve.
If you have some personal vendetta against Gary Hall (for whatever reason) deal with it. But don't use this forum to landbast them as bad for the sport especially with your so called disclaimer. If you know Jon Olson, you would also know he would not associate himself as the head coach if this were not a worthwhile endeavour.
By the way, the fact that there is only one woman on the team is a problem is laughable. I wonder how you feel about collegiate swim teams that train separately. i.e. University of Texas and Stanford must be some of the worst swimming programs you know since the men and women train separately.
I hope I am not being to personal here, I do not mean to take personal shots. I just truly believe any good publicity in our sport is a good thing.
