Old national caliber swimmers that never come back
Former Member
Interesting and unfortunate that the vast majority of ex swimmers that made finals at NCAAs or Nationals when they were younger (or even just cuts) do not now participate in Masters Swimming. Only a small handful of these people come to Masters Nationals each year within each age group.
What a good opportunity USMS presents to see old faces and have a good time. I think USMS would benefit tremendously from their knowledge of the sport.
John Smith
Originally posted by TheGoodSmith
The sport is not growing in the US in general. If anything it's dying slowly.
US medal totals in the past 4 or 5 Olympics and World Championships certainly lend credibility to this assertion.
I've been to more than a few age group meets and let me say your experiences are different from mine. Swimming is crazy popular here. The programs have waiting lists.
Well, if you really want a clear picture of what is going on with age group swimming and the future of USS performances, get out to a few age group meets and see for yourself. Its not encouraging.
Boys enrollment is down comparatively on nearly every metric.... vs. girls.... vs.... 20 years ago.... vs. the population at large. Its not a good picture. This is apart from another significant fact that so many colleges have pulled the plug on swimming in the past 10 years.
Let me ask you..... do you really think the depth of American sprinters are on par with what they used to be? Did the 100m freestyle in the Olympics impress you?
Remember, performances today are a reflection of programs 10 years ago or more. Men's swimming has been on a decline in terms of enrollment for a while now.
John Smith
Mr Goodsmith:
I made an error about the Olympic years of some of those divers. Christian Styen was a member of the 1992 Olympic team not the 1984 team representing Norway. The other guy, Jon Vegard was on both the 1980 and 1984 teams for Norway so he was probably long gone before you swam there. I don't think either of these guys contributed major points like Scoggins and Dumas did at the NCAA Championships.
Well, I agree that Texas has less foreign swimmers than the University of Arizona does. I was saying that most top college programs get there share of out of state swimmers. I think back in the mid-1970's. What's interesting that in spite of having less college program for guys than gals,our men's team is probably one of the best. Many college programs that are elimanated have swimmers that don't make nationals. Now, I can see people being upset that they have less opportunity now to swim in college than the girls. The same was true for the girls 25 years ago. But whether having more boys going out for the sport at 10 years old hurts in the long run who knows. We have more girls that go out for the sport but our women don't win as easily was our male team. Maybe, swimming is more competive in the world at the female level.
Ande's theory of...
"peer pressure sometimes works"
"stupid bets with alcohol prizes are extremely effective"
I think this is what has the best chance to bring people back... atleast that's what we are doing.
I mentioned to my old swim mates that I started swimming again and they asked how far I was swimming- I mentioned 1000 yards to start out and they ridiculed me... well I had to double that and started doing 2100 yards the next day... it's good to be back.
