Swimming World top 12 Masters Swimmers

I agree with Meg. I participated in the SWIM Magazine "Swimmers of the Year" panel from 2000-2004 -- so I can probably shed some light on how these lists go together. Although panelists from past years’ evaluations were members of United States Masters Swimming, USMS did not create the “Swimmers of the Year” recognition. That credit belongs to Sports Publications Inc., current publishers of Swimming World Magazine. As we saw every year since the “Swimmers of the Year” recognition was first created, the readers’ perceptions are often very different from the reality. Some clarifications: Originally posted by TheGoodSmith Is there an age requirement here that we don't know about? There was never an age requirement in the past, and there is nothing in the article or the Editor's Letter that suggests an age requirement. Originally posted by White Buffalo I have now read the article in Swimming World. It makes no sense to me as to how these individuals were selected. What is the criteria? Please read the Editor’s Letter, page 6, for a description of the criteria and selection process. Originally posted by TheGoodSmith It's totally inaccurate to leave out USMS or short course yards in any evaluation of the best Masters Swimmers. Notes on that decision are also contained in the Editor’s Letter (page 6). Originally posted by Allen Stark One huge problem with this list (and the prior SWIM lists) is that it rewards breaking World Records. The award is based on swimming performance, and when evaluating the quality of performances, of course there will be records involved. However, these lists aren’t necessarily determined solely by a numerical tabulation of records. During the period from 2000-2004, the list was moving in the direction of recognizing performers who had a great impact on the sport because of the quality of specific individual performances (e.g.: Wally Dicks, Jack Groselle, Suzanne Heim-Bowen, Greg Shaw, Caroline Krattli, Bob Strand, Flo Carr, Wenke Hansen), and performers who were dominant even if they didn’t break a lot of records (e.g.: Nadine Day). Had it been a list of the 12 people with the greatest number of records, the lists would have looked very, very different. Originally posted by kaffrinn Can someone who has a copy of the magazine post the names here? Sure. Nick Gillingham, 38, Great Britain Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen, 43, USA Trip Hedrick, 51, USA Tom Wolf, 50, USA Lorenzo Marugo, 53, Italy Barbara Dunbar, 55, USA Judy Wilson, 60, Great Britain Barry Young, 66, New Zealand Yoshiko Osaki, 66, Japan Jane Asher, 74, Great Britain Sylvia Neuhauser, 76, Austria Takushi Kameda, 91, Japan

I agree with Meg. I participated in the SWIM Magazine "Swimmers of the Year" panel from 2000-2004 -- so I can probably shed some light on how these lists go together. Although panelists from past years’ evaluations were members of United States Masters Swimming, USMS did not create the “Swimmers of the Year” recognition. That credit belongs to Sports Publications Inc., current publishers of Swimming World Magazine. As we saw every year since the “Swimmers of the Year” recognition was first created, the readers’ perceptions are often very different from the reality. Some clarifications: Originally posted by TheGoodSmith Is there an age requirement here that we don't know about? There was never an age requirement in the past, and there is nothing in the article or the Editor's Letter that suggests an age requirement. Originally posted by White Buffalo I have now read the article in Swimming World. It makes no sense to me as to how these individuals were selected. What is the criteria? Please read the Editor’s Letter, page 6, for a description of the criteria and selection process. Originally posted by TheGoodSmith It's totally inaccurate to leave out USMS or short course yards in any evaluation of the best Masters Swimmers. Notes on that decision are also contained in the Editor’s Letter (page 6). Originally posted by Allen Stark One huge problem with this list (and the prior SWIM lists) is that it rewards breaking World Records. The award is based on swimming performance, and when evaluating the quality of performances, of course there will be records involved. However, these lists aren’t necessarily determined solely by a numerical tabulation of records. During the period from 2000-2004, the list was moving in the direction of recognizing performers who had a great impact on the sport because of the quality of specific individual performances (e.g.: Wally Dicks, Jack Groselle, Suzanne Heim-Bowen, Greg Shaw, Caroline Krattli, Bob Strand, Flo Carr, Wenke Hansen), and performers who were dominant even if they didn’t break a lot of records (e.g.: Nadine Day). Had it been a list of the 12 people with the greatest number of records, the lists would have looked very, very different. Originally posted by kaffrinn Can someone who has a copy of the magazine post the names here? Sure. Nick Gillingham, 38, Great Britain Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen, 43, USA Trip Hedrick, 51, USA Tom Wolf, 50, USA Lorenzo Marugo, 53, Italy Barbara Dunbar, 55, USA Judy Wilson, 60, Great Britain Barry Young, 66, New Zealand Yoshiko Osaki, 66, Japan Jane Asher, 74, Great Britain Sylvia Neuhauser, 76, Austria Takushi Kameda, 91, Japan