Of course, if you only want to take part in aquatics come to Europe for the European champs www.simforbundet.nu/.../contentx.htm if you have the inclination.
Paul
One note: the world masters games is the world masters swimming championships for 2005 but does not have qualifying times, so for those of us who are not yet very fast this is a good opportunity to experience a world championships, not to mention participate in a huge multisport games. It remains to be seen whether the Edmonton games will be on the scale of the last world masters games in Australia, but those games were the largest games in the world, more than twice the size of the olympics in terms of number of athletes.
Right now I'm planning to swim at U.S. long course Nationals in Mission Viejo.
Somehow Edmonton doesn't have quite the pull that Australia has. It would certainly be easier and cheaper to get to for most of us, though!
Also Edmonton is within pretty easy striking distance of Jasper and Banff National Parks, which would make for a very nice side trip--after the meet, of course!
