Super teams

One problem with this discussion is that the National Championships aren't really championships in the normal sense of the word, they are just a large meet that's open to everyone that is singular only by name and tradition. Not that their format is not appropriate for USMS given its goals, just that it causes a certain degree of confusion in discussion. In the normal sense of the word only the best go to the championships and almost all the best go, neither of these is true in this case. Trying to create artificial catagories in order to allow slower performances to win awards just leads to arbitrary decisions and contradictions. Why not go with a tested and proven solution like the FINA scoring formulas? Faster swimmers always get higher scores and everyone gets a score. What score you get doesn't depend on who else shows up (except to the extent that that affects how fast you swim). Seems like a perfect fit for USMS.

One problem with this discussion is that the National Championships aren't really championships in the normal sense of the word, they are just a large meet that's open to everyone that is singular only by name and tradition. Not that their format is not appropriate for USMS given its goals, just that it causes a certain degree of confusion in discussion. In the normal sense of the word only the best go to the championships and almost all the best go, neither of these is true in this case. Trying to create artificial catagories in order to allow slower performances to win awards just leads to arbitrary decisions and contradictions. Why not go with a tested and proven solution like the FINA scoring formulas? Faster swimmers always get higher scores and everyone gets a score. What score you get doesn't depend on who else shows up (except to the extent that that affects how fast you swim). Seems like a perfect fit for USMS.