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
I found a photo on www.theraceclub.net
from this weekend.
I'm going to try to attach it.
If it doesn't attach, you can see it at their website under a new blue link that says usms nationals under "fun relay"
Originally posted by NKMD
Okay, I had to join in this discussion.
The disqualification is due to no one on the relay was in the 19-24 age group. They were all older.
Right before the relay Gary Hall was NOT on the relay.
He was dressed in street clothes. Unless he changed out of his clothes within one heat.
It was fun to watch.
KUDOS to Kentucky and INDY for the great relays.
AND the Studs of Illinois Masters: Neil Peiffer (50 Fly) and Herman Louw (50 Free)
Great meet everyone.
Sounds like they were disqualified for any number of reasons. Wrong swimmers and wrong agegroup.
Thanks Nadine for clearing that up. Wonder why they entered the wrong age group.
It was fun to see them and everyone else racing this weekend.
Very inspiring folks!!
WOW! Having Gary Hall and Sabir Muhammed at Nationals was great! They added a lot of excitement to the meet! Gary Hall was as nice as he could be! I got so tickled when I met him. I introduced myself and he proceeded to tell me, "Its nice to meet you. I'm Gary Hall"! I laughed and said "I know exactly who you are"!;) He let me and my friend take pictures with him and signed his autograph for me! He was very humble and kind.....and wow!..what a swimmer's body!:o He said he was having a blast. Hopefully, they will come to more meets. Sabir needs to do a turn clinic! His turns are superhuman!
I emailed the race club about the reason. What I posted came directly from an email from a race club rep. They may have been in the wrong agegroup but according to the race club themselves, they were disqualified for having a swimmer on the relay that wasn't a member of the race club.
Originally posted by Phil Arcuni
Well, I know that. So what rule prevents a relay, the youngest of whom is 25, from swimming in the 19-24 age group? Is it explicitly stated that they can't?
Yes. The age is dictated by the youngest swimmer's age, as already stated. A relay with the youngest swimmer being 25 would therefore have to swim in the 25+ division and not the 19+.
Is there a rule preventing older people swimming in a younger age-group relay? I would be surprised; I do it all the time. So what if they are *all* older?
Originally posted by Phil Arcuni
Is there a rule preventing older people swimming in a younger age-group relay? I would be surprised; I do it all the time. So what if they are *all* older?
For SCY, the age of the relay is determined by the age of the youngest swimmer. You could have a 19 year old with three 90 year olds and the relay would be 19-24.
Any metric meet and the age of the relay is based on the sum of ages of the relay members.
