hello!! im new to these boards, and was wondering what y'all thought. Most of the time in the Olympics the ages of swimmers seem to be between the early teens to about early 30s. (pardon me if im wrong on this.) Is there some sort of age cap here? it seems that way to me. I am 23, LOVE swimming and still dream about what if i had devoted my time to my olympic dream. what if i started now, would I be at that level. I beleive you are the age u feel u are. its just a number. what do YOU think? :)
Former Member
wow, thanks for all of your responses. I know to get to the olympics is a extraordinarily challenging feat. otherwise we would all be going. Its like that tom hanks line in A league of Their Own, "the hard is what makes it great".
gull80: I used to swim in a summer league, and tried out for my high school team. I have always had a passion and competitive drive for swimming. I dont have great speed but my technique is good. But its just like Bob Mc Adams was explaining, that life sometimes erodes training time. School, family, finances, came before swimming. This being an olympic year, its just hard not to dream about being there. I dunno, maybe im naive, and just stuck in the "shoulda, coulda, woulda, what ifs." Time, i have.. Resources-lets just say, my parents are the best. and NYC is a great place to be.
Aquageek: what i meant to say about age-ism is that, you generally dont see or even hear about older swimmers in competition. (older swimmers being 40,50,60 etc.) They deserve just as much if not more accolades as their younger counterparts. In many sports, it seems like if ya ddnt go for it at the "average" age/time, its just not going to happen. Although, I know there are many many exceptions to this rule.
Whats is the Aorta thing about? sorry, im kinda slow today, haha.
The aorta thing is kind of like saying "Jumanji" three times fast. You'll see an innocent one page thread turn into twenty something. :) loaded with medical jargon and lots of drama.
In all seriousness, I think we'll begin to see more swimmers staying in the game longer just because not everyone is throwing in the towel at a young age. Perhaps too many people were convinced that swimmers in their late twenties were considered over-the-hill. I think we'll begin to see more "seasoned" athletes sticking it out in the shorter distance events.
I see Ron went a 2:04 this past weekend in the 200 IM but he still hasn't made the Olympic cut of 2:02.5. Anyone know if he has another meet to make it?
I assume for one to be considered a masters swimmer he/she must be registered with USMS. Jenny T and others are not registered in USMS. I would believe that is the reason
Originally posted by Sam Perry
This is nothing against Dr. Ron, but why is he considered a masters swimmer and Josh Davis, Jenny Thompson, Gary Hall, Sabir Muhammad, Dara Torres, et. al. are never mentioned in the same light. Just because he has swam in masters meets and holds masters records is that the criteria? The way I look at it, he trains much like these individuals do, has the talent and deserves the accolades. These folks are doing/have done even more amazing things than Ron has at adavanced ages. Just a thought...
Gary Hall and Sabir Muhammad ARE "Masters Swimmers." Did they not compete (and is some cases get DSQ's) at Nationals? Isn't the Race Club an official USMS team?
