Losers who daydream and miss their heat

A most interesting discussion. Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject. I was the USMS liaison at this meet and met with the officials at the beginning of the meet to discuss our rules. The head officials were in favor of allowing swimmers who didn't check in or that missed events to have some other way to swim them. Unfortunately at this time, we do not conduct our championships that way. The officials made a number of suggestions that the championship committee is going to consider in hopes of improving the athlete experience at our national championships. As for John missing his heat of the 50, it is easier to do than one would think and it does happen a few times each event. When we race in two pools, it is possible to the one course to get ahead of the other. As an example, heat 15 is getting ready to race in the odd course and heat 20 is racing in the even course. This makes it easy to get confused, especially in the 50 where there is a heat going off about every 20 seconds between the two courses. As others have pointed out, with the number of swimmers that we are dealing with, we would have great difficulty if we allowed swimmers to jump into open lanes. Unless the officials were notified in advance, we would likely have problems in the timing room and results would be inaccurate. In local meets in the past, this has led to national records being set incorrectly. Meg, you deserved the hard time you got at the Cardinal Invitational although I am sure I didn't tell people to stop clapping. I just wanted to point out that you were swimming so your friends wouldn't miss you. I like the idea of heats at the end of the meet, but I could see some objections to this. The meet at Coral Springs ran great and we were done by 4:00 each day. In some past nationals, we have had longer day, some ending after 7:00 pm. In those cases, asking volunteers to stay extra so we can run a few events could be asking a lot. Assuming we make this available in all events, there is cost to be considered. If we have an extra heat of the 1650, we would need to keep the ambulance on site. If it was me swimming, it would take 40 minutes. EMT's don't come cheaply. Some hosts are paying $150 - $200 per hour for them to be on site (they are required when swimmers are in the pool for competition or warm down). Still, this is an idea worth considering. Bill, the championship committee is working on a policy manual, but there is nothing formalized yet that I am aware of. There was an earlier comment suggestion that we would all a famous swimmers to compete, but ignore lesser athletes. That is completely untrue. Over the years, Olympians have missed there heats on occasion. Ron Karnaugh didn't check in for the 1000 in Hawaii. Gary Hall, Jr. missed an event in Cupertino. Gary Hall, Sr. missed an event here in Coral Springs. While not quite as well known, John as going after the national record in the 50 back and is certainly a swimmer fun to watch competing. Our rules apply to all swimmers, fast or slow. In truth, John all your problems would have been solved if you had just listened to the announcer. John, if you had listened to the announcer

A most interesting discussion. Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject. I was the USMS liaison at this meet and met with the officials at the beginning of the meet to discuss our rules. The head officials were in favor of allowing swimmers who didn't check in or that missed events to have some other way to swim them. Unfortunately at this time, we do not conduct our championships that way. The officials made a number of suggestions that the championship committee is going to consider in hopes of improving the athlete experience at our national championships. As for John missing his heat of the 50, it is easier to do than one would think and it does happen a few times each event. When we race in two pools, it is possible to the one course to get ahead of the other. As an example, heat 15 is getting ready to race in the odd course and heat 20 is racing in the even course. This makes it easy to get confused, especially in the 50 where there is a heat going off about every 20 seconds between the two courses. As others have pointed out, with the number of swimmers that we are dealing with, we would have great difficulty if we allowed swimmers to jump into open lanes. Unless the officials were notified in advance, we would likely have problems in the timing room and results would be inaccurate. In local meets in the past, this has led to national records being set incorrectly. Meg, you deserved the hard time you got at the Cardinal Invitational although I am sure I didn't tell people to stop clapping. I just wanted to point out that you were swimming so your friends wouldn't miss you. I like the idea of heats at the end of the meet, but I could see some objections to this. The meet at Coral Springs ran great and we were done by 4:00 each day. In some past nationals, we have had longer day, some ending after 7:00 pm. In those cases, asking volunteers to stay extra so we can run a few events could be asking a lot. Assuming we make this available in all events, there is cost to be considered. If we have an extra heat of the 1650, we would need to keep the ambulance on site. If it was me swimming, it would take 40 minutes. EMT's don't come cheaply. Some hosts are paying $150 - $200 per hour for them to be on site (they are required when swimmers are in the pool for competition or warm down). Still, this is an idea worth considering. Bill, the championship committee is working on a policy manual, but there is nothing formalized yet that I am aware of. There was an earlier comment suggestion that we would all a famous swimmers to compete, but ignore lesser athletes. That is completely untrue. Over the years, Olympians have missed there heats on occasion. Ron Karnaugh didn't check in for the 1000 in Hawaii. Gary Hall, Jr. missed an event in Cupertino. Gary Hall, Sr. missed an event here in Coral Springs. While not quite as well known, John as going after the national record in the 50 back and is certainly a swimmer fun to watch competing. Our rules apply to all swimmers, fast or slow. In truth, John all your problems would have been solved if you had just listened to the announcer. John, if you had listened to the announcer