I am 30 and this past recently became ymca national champion in 3 events. Here is my problem. The times I posted were far from blazing. I just got back into swimming last fall and it just turned out that the competition for my age group in this particular year was not strong. I know that this will not happen again. Should I just enjoy the victory as it is? I feel guilty saying I am a national champ knowing older age groups were tougher competition? How would you feel? Thanks
Former Member
No. You showed up and competed and others didn't. Half the battle is making up your mind that you are going to do it and then following through. You did. Congrats.
-LBJ
Enjoy the vistory.
I seem to win in my age groups at local meets in some events but in my area, there are some fast women in my area and they seem to win the races. I will get to their level one of these days.
Performance in swimming at any given meet is always relative to that of the other swimmers who are there. The only kind of performance that is not relative is when you set a world record.
Should Ervin and Hall feel guilty about sharing a gold medal in 50m freestyle at the 2000 Olympics because they didn't beat the world record time Alexander Popov had set in that event earlier that year? Popov was swimming against them in the final heat, but on that particular day, he didn't swim his world record time, nor did he swim a time that was as fast as theirs.
