I have been so busy with the XI FINA Masters World Championships, I have not been able to report some of the other things that I learned at the FINA Bureau meeting in Dubai last month.
One of the great things about going to the meetings is the ability to develop personal relationships with the members of the Bureau. On Saturday afternoon, the Bureau meetings were finished. I was walking through the lobby of the beautiful Fairmont Dubai, at one table was Cornel Marculescu, FINA Executive Director, Bill Matson and Dale Neuburger, our FINA rep.
I got called over to them and we talked about the championships to be held at Stanford. After a couple of glasses of wine, somehow the conversation got on the topic of evening out the competition. I told them that when I was in high school in San Francisco, they had a system of exponents for teams and a person could have no more than x amount of points (points were given for age, height and weight). This way you could have a basketball team of people of about like physical ability playing the game.
Bill Matson said that FINA Masters Committee was looking at differenciating the records. The FINA Bureau wants to be more inclusive and the ability to have more records. When you have different types of records more people can go after them.- it will create more excitement and maybe more people will want to swim Masters As FINA is divided into different geographical segments North America, South American, Europe, Asia and Pacific the FINA Masters Committee will be recommending that the records be kept for those areas. (I thought I heard that this was being proposed by the French who wanted there swimmers to be able to get international recognition – there best women Masters swimmers are in the same age group as Laura Val).
Dale said that the US is been opposed to this and that he and June Krauser have been working to keep it in committee, but it looks like he does not have the votes to keep it there. The US thinks that there should be only one set of records and in the current format.
He also said that there is going to be “super category” of Masters records. Masters Masters (age 40-59) and Senior Masters (60+). Cornel said that Walt Reid, who keeps track of all the International Masters Records, while initially opposed to the idea, has developed the software to handle all the new data that will be coming in.
Dale said FINA Masters will be recommending that the Federations have new categories for swimmers who were not age group swimmers (he thought this was marketing than from the competition committee). I laughed and said yea – right – the next thing you would do is to keep records on the BMI (Body Mass Index Scale). Cornel said that was considerd but they would like to see some other changes made first.
Bill said that all that is left to do is that it has to pass the FINA Masters Committee. They will be meeting in Riccione, Italy just before the X FINA Masters World Championships. (Dale thinks that the French and Europeans have the votes to get it through). After it passes there, it will go the the FINA Congress (In past years, it met at the same time as the Olympics, but starting with this Congress, it will meet at the World Championships).
Anyway, that is what I learned at Dubai. And thought you might like to know.
michael
Former Member
I leave you in this thread.
My position is above.
I clarified the perceived insult to Tom as a non insult, to the contrary.
It gets into mindless bickering now.
Happy mindless bickering to the ones who like to do it.
Originally posted by mattson
Ah, but even a circle has two sides (inside and outside). The Moebius strip of Ion only has one side... ;)
Is that algebra or calculus? Or perhaps geometry? I mean, we *have* to be scientifically precise here ;)
And if a traveler stays on one side of a mobius strip, will he approach infinity? And how does that affect the matricized approximation og his hydrodynamics? Would it depend on the type and the rate of his stroke or is he stuck in an eternal doggy paddle?
Connie, according to Tom...VO2Max Shampoo with VO5 Conditioner and his new Power Boost (I added a Flux Capacitor with Gyro Stabilization, MUCH faster) Negate all of the ethereal influences!:D
Paul, nope, just one meaning! I'm a sucker for the ladies!:D Hope this doesn't offend anyone, I'll apologize before I even say it...... I am a *** trapped in a man's body!!!!!!:D
Michael Sparks:
What are you talking about? Every thread is somehow about Ion or eventually gets to that anyway.
I cruised over to usswim.org yesterday to check out their forums. Beza was active over there but I guess he got bored talking about teen idols and favorite color Speedos and came back to torture us with his never endin nonsense.
He doesn't usually come back to this forum until noon ET. That's when get he gets off the bagel line at Intel and comes home from the third shift.
Originally posted by aquageek
I did engage Gull80 in some medical discourse at one time and do honestly feel bad about that. I went over the line, sorry gull80.
Apology accepted. I have a pretty thick skin anyway. By the way, will you be swimming in Raleigh May 1? I was thinking about swimming the 1000. . . Didn't you say something about wearing a clown suit?
