It appears that Swimming World came out with the first Top 12 World Masters Swimmers.
Seems a little strange that there are only 2 people under the age of 50 on this list. Is there an age requirement here that we don't know about?
Where is the Evil Paul Smith's name on this list? He sets at least one National or World Record almost every year.
John Smith
Perhaps if Paul takes up knitting he'll merit an article in USMS Swimmer.
Tom Wolf was a great choice--I'm glad Swimming World recognized his accomplishments.
Good suggestion.
Paul.... what are some of your additional talents and hobobies......
Let me help.....
1. Beer drinking
2. Travel to exotic lands in the far east
3. Closet Conservatism
4. Moving homes and relocation
These are excellent qualifications for a top 12 choice !
One huge problem with this list (and the prior SWIM lists)is that it rewards breaking World Records. People like my friend and nemesis Bob Strand may break records when they age up and a few times after that,but they are still fast(and outstanding) all the time.
I think that Karlyn Pipes Neilsen in that list. She was showing it at her stroke clinic that she and her husband held in my area and she was really nice and knew her stuff. The clinc was very informative and I learned alot about do fresstyle more efficiency.
Originally posted by White Buffalo
Good Mister Smith:
Again, I am not diminishing Hedrick's accomplishments, just pointing out what I believe is, again, another flaw, in United States Masters Swimming! I do admit, there are so many, this one is minor since it appears to be totally subjective without any methodology.
How is this a flaw of USMS? The list was compiled by Swimming World, not anybody from USMS.
White Buffalo:
This is not a list compiled by the organization known as United States Masters Swimming. The list was compiled by Swimming World magazine, which is not affiliated with USMS. Phil Whitten says in his "A Voice for the Sport" column that they first came up with a list of people who broke world records in 2004. That's world records only, no USMS records, which means no short course yards records. Then they consulted experts from Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and the U.S., who used objective and subjective criteria to choose the top 12. I am not being critical of the methodology (actually, I think it's a pretty good methodology, considering how enormously difficult a task this), just pointing out that this is not something done by USMS.
Mr. G. Smith, :p
I've been busy having 3 babies in the last 5 years and not doing a lot of swimming... I'd love to watch you swim at SC Nationals, what are you swimming? Well, besides the sprint frees?
