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
Former Member
Originally posted by mattson
Maybe it was Hall's really evil, shorter twin in street clothes. :D Sabir is 6' 7", Hall is shorter. (He wasn't taller than me... unless he was doing the swimmer's slouch.)
Fairly certain that it was Hall swimming on the relay. That man has blazing speed between the flags! (Between the streamline and the dolphin kick, Sabir gets amazing distance off the turns.)
So true!
I managed to tape couple of those races, including Sabir's record braking fly and freestyle events. Incredible swims!
Got to meet and say hi tyo Sabir over in the hospitality room. Very nice guy too :)
Originally posted by lefty
I think that the reason the Race Club is going to the meet is to: 1) Promote themselves 2) Promote the team 3) Promote the sport 4) respect for Ma$ter$ swimming
They have great competition by practicing together each night.
Hall an 18 in the 50 yard free? Possible.
Having the race club there was awesome! It added to the great meet atmosphere.
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?
Originally posted by Bert Bergen
Apparently, unless you are a politician, a doctor, or in the pharmaceutical industry, Aquageek will give you a free pass to loot the entire world!
What are you talking about? I've never looted. I rioted once but that was because they changed the drinking age right before I was old enough.
Who wouldn't want to see the best in the world? My goodness, Bert, I think you are wound up a little too tight. Consider a larger Speedo.
Originally posted by swimmer
At the next nationals, lets all just throw some relays together and see the reaction. Doesn't really sound like a bad idea. It's all just for fun and that's why we're there.
I'm thinking about the relays at the end of last years Nationals, at Arizona. Due to the time overrun and changed flights, my team was scrambling to fill in empty spots on the relays. Well, when I was put on a relay, I noticed that I dragged them to a younger bracket. Fortunately, there was another scratched relay in my age group. I had just enough time to copy over all the names to the other card, before the race started.
Suppose I had missed that, until after the race. Should we have been given some kind of penalty (like a year's suspension??) for an honest mistake? (A penalty beyond a DQ.)
The names can be penciled in, the new order can be penciled in but the age group needs to stay as it is typed on the card.
So if you were the youngest and really one age down and it got turned in after the race as a higher age category, yes, they missed it. It would have been a DQ. And at Ann Arbor that one summer one of our teams (who won) got DQ'd for just that very thing. Oh well?!
The Race Club group showed us all that swimming has evolved into a completely different sport; 21.1 in a 50 fly?! Unbelievable!
I would however like to point out that there we're some "old farts" there who gave an equally impressive performance, one of whom I had the pleasure of swimming a relay with.
Rowdy Gaines flew in for a day swam our 200 free relay leading off in a 21.3 (new National Record for 45+), the guy is an incredible talent and one of the more humble athletes I've ever met!
