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
Yes. In other threads, some have said and implied that The Race Club is elitist. I disagree! They were very friendly and down to earth. Signing autographs, posing for MANY pictures and talking to countless fans throughout the weekend at Nationals, they were GREAT!
Originally posted by Corrin Popps
If the race club is elitist, then they showed a very humble side at the meet this last weekend. Along with providing us with some fun swims to watch, they were posing for pictures constantly and signing many forms of memorbilia. As a long time masters swimmer and coach, the race club exposed many masters swimmers to see in person what elite level swimming looks like. The race club coming to Masters nationals was a great education for all of our members and they did so with class.
Did someone say they were elitist?
It's amazing if you look at the beginning of this thread and some of the things that were assumed about Mr. Hall, et. al.
Things written about him and passed on tend to be very negative, but I hope that those that got to meet people from The Race Club realize what it's all about. Training to achieve the ultimate goal in swimming as well as bringing a whole new level of publicity to a sport that I would assume we all have a passion for.
I, for one, think USMS and USA Swimming could learn something about the marketing of a sport that so many Americans have no idea what we are all about. Hopefully Athens will run smoothly and no story will be bigger than the athletic accomplishments.
If that is the case with Phelps, Coughlin, Crocker, Muhammad (hopefully), J. Thompson and Hall we could really springboard (pun not intended!) this sport to new levels.
