This is a motivation question, not a reprise of an old debate.
I'm wondering if there are any swimmers posting Top 10's in the ultra-competitive middle age ranges who did NOT swim in college, or were not standout HS or age group swimmers.
I swam age group as a kid, then took a break for HS because we had no pool until my senior year. I swam my senior year, and was supposed to swim at my Div. III college, but bailed because I thought it would take too much time away from my chosen major of beer drinking, guitar playing, and chasing (invariably unsuccessfully) women.
After swimming off and on over the years, I joined masters in September, and swam my first meet in November. I'm in the 45-49 age group.
So I'm currently in those heady early days when my times are dropping, I've lost some weight, and I'm feeling stronger. My meet times suck, but at least they are all PB's because I can't even remember what strokes I swam in HS, much less any times (it was the 70's. Hmm)
I understand setting personal, achievable goals. I have those and am working toward them.
But like any red-blooded competitor, I look at the Top 10's and records to see just how high the bar is set. Pretty damn high is the answer. "Who are these guys," I wonder, and so I read the bios. "Former NCAA record holder" or "standout swimmer for Texas/Stanford/fill in blank here" jump out at me.
So are there any swimmers at the elite levels who are certified late bloomers? Or are we latecomers to the game doomed to be mid-level cannon fodder for the fast crowd?
Jim:
All American selections are not final until the 2005 year is over. That means all of the 3 courses (SCY, LCM, SCM). The 2005 SCM Top Ten has not been released yet and that is the final course for the selection of the 2005 USMS Pool All Americans. Any day now you will see the preliminary listing on this website and when it becomes final the 2005 season will be final. USMS notifys swimmers with a congratulations letter and a signed USMS Certificate from the President of USMS. At least that is what I know of the past since I received some. The USMS All American and USMS All Star lists are usually published in the USMS swim publication in the May/June issue of the following year. For some sort of reason, the 2004 USMS All American/All Star list for Pool and Open Water was extremly late getting into the USMS publication but made it in toward the end of last year.
One this process is done you can order your patches for USMS Top Ten and Relay patches. Check the Top Ten page to send for the correct patches because it sometimes changes from year to year.
Jim:
All American selections are not final until the 2005 year is over. That means all of the 3 courses (SCY, LCM, SCM). The 2005 SCM Top Ten has not been released yet and that is the final course for the selection of the 2005 USMS Pool All Americans. Any day now you will see the preliminary listing on this website and when it becomes final the 2005 season will be final. USMS notifys swimmers with a congratulations letter and a signed USMS Certificate from the President of USMS. At least that is what I know of the past since I received some. The USMS All American and USMS All Star lists are usually published in the USMS swim publication in the May/June issue of the following year. For some sort of reason, the 2004 USMS All American/All Star list for Pool and Open Water was extremly late getting into the USMS publication but made it in toward the end of last year.
One this process is done you can order your patches for USMS Top Ten and Relay patches. Check the Top Ten page to send for the correct patches because it sometimes changes from year to year.
