Losers who daydream and miss their heat

Originally posted by dorothyrde Now the sad fact is, if the starter looked at his heat sheet and saw John Smith, or Dorothyrde, and looked up and saw an empty lane, and looked around and did not see anyone who looked this person, and would not know what the person looked like anyway to even know where to look, they would pause, and then start the heat. If the starter looked down, saw Gary Hall Jr was missing, the advantage the starter has is he/she knows what Gary looks like and would be able to look around and see this person, so yes being famous most certainly would have helped John. So face recognition creates an unequal playing field (or pool).... I have the perfect solution! Have all swimmers supply photos along with their entry forms and assign a "watcher" if need be (just as there are timers for different swimmers) whose role it would be to use the photo to search out the swimmer in her/his charge and drag said swimmer to the start, wresting her/him away from the adoring mobs. (This particular job, even if volunteer, should probably come with Workers Comp if the mobs are particularly large or unruly.) Swimmers should be asked not to put caps on until the "watcher" has spotted them and dragged them to the start, as it could interfere with identification... although swimmers wearing shark caps may be allowed to don these, since they could in fact help in identification. Swimmers who miss heats after having the watcher take them physically to the start would then have their photos posted on the internet (with or without shark caps) for all to see and comment upon in USMS forums. I admit that as a newcomer to this sport, I might be overlooking a few details in this otherwise very practical scheme... but what's a few details in the interest of ensuring fairness to all swimmers? ;) Hey, any time you need solutions, I'm the go-to gal! :D

It can happen to anyone... didn't some American sprinters at the '72 Olympics have a similar problem, missing the hundred dash? Thiink what distinguished company you have... if that's any comfort... And I bet those sprinters would have loved a chance to compete in another heat with or without a shark cap (altho such a thing is probably unnecessary in running events). I swam in my first USMS meet last year and knowing my absence of mind, was terrified I'd miss my heat while swimming in the warm-up pool. I'd swim a bit, run over to the starting blocks to check on things, swim more, go back to check...get nervous... and finally (to my relief and also, I think my bf's), was there in the right place for my heat. And was VERY SLOOOOOOW! It was LCM, and I was used to SCY--began wondering about 3/4 of the way whether I was anywhere near the finish, since it seemed to be taking forever. (Of course, this taking forever thing isn't all that unusual for me, but I'm talking forever and a day.) So in mid-freestyle, I raised my head to see where the heck I was and whether I'd unaccountably gotten lost and was really swimming to China or something. Nope... still in same pool. Still not done. I think if I had taken much longer, the officials might have wished I'd missed the heat. ;)

Hey there is someone else out there that has to have their events written on their hand! Glad to hear that there is at least on other person out there that needs to have it written there so they can check it frequently during the day. :)

My general policy for meets that I run is that if there is an empty lane, the starter will pause briefly and call for the swimmer by name. If you're daydreaming behind your lane, I want to get you on the blocks. If you're in the warmdown area and can't hear us -- tough luck. For college championship meets, where time is much less of a concern, we generally have even more leniancy. If a lane is empty, we'll step people down and call for the missing swimmer. I ran a meet several years ago where the person who arguably would have won the event was DQed because she didn't show up for prelims. She was in the warmdown pool, daydreaming. Yes, she should have been more on top of things. But nobody wanted to see her not swim because of that. -Rick

Hey ladybug aren't you going to offer up your shark cap to help the cause?

Rowdy- I think the fin along the top would be an unfair advantage. Anyways its too cool to use as a dunce cap. People might start missing their heat just to wear it. I know I would. It would go nicely with my TYR competition suit. :)

Ande, I was chatting with Clay about Steve Wood and thought that I was at the correct end of the pool. I kept thinking I was in the heat right after him. Unfortunately, my heat was "odd" not "even" and by the time Clay finished, my heat was up and it was too late. Oh well, ........ I figure its a good subject to start a rule change for the championship committee. The way I figure it, regardless of my in ability to differentiate between the even and odd heats and generally pay attention, the officials shouldn't be so stiff about the rules when there's plenty of open heats in subsequent age groups within the same event. It wouldn't have hurt anything to hop in and swim a 50 just for time and not be eligible for team points. Seems pretty stringent for masters swimming. John Smith

John, Sorry I didn't realize what had happened. My lane was available, athough I think my heat may have been before yours...I would've let you use my name, too! Oh well, SB

Well, if there were truly a lot of these of incidents happening at Masters Nationals I would have to agree with you. However, the reality is there are VERY few people out the the thousands of swims at the meet that encounter this situation. It wouldn't take much to help out in these situations and it would go a LONG way to build support for the organization when they try to "work" with its members and help them out. As for the meet officials and workers that run USMS events. I hate to be blunt, but they are there to help conduct the meet for the dues and meet fee paying members...... not the other way around. The meet is for the benefit of the participants and helps show case USMS efforts and positive benefits as a whole. If they feel "put upon" or stressed by helping someone out at the meet in a bad situation, they need to either deal with it or not volunteer to work at the meet in the first place. I think most if not all the workers are to be commended for their efforts in running the meet. Its a series of long tiring days. The problem seems to come from the way the meet is perceived to be run. I think the championship committee needs to consider loosening the reigns a bit. Take for example..... Rowdy Gaines lead off the 200 free relay at Indy nationas in a 21.3 and swam the fastest time for a 45 yr. old man ever. His relay split was submitted but not recognized because we failed to renumber the relay card with his name being first prior to the race. This kind of rigid response by USMS at meets is unecessary in my opinion. After all ...... it's just masters swimming. USMS should have let him have the record for cripes sake. Having said all this.... I will give Coral Springs high marks for a very nice facility and running the meet timely. John Smith

Speaking up for the meet volunteers -- there is a lot of pressure on the meet folks to get results posted very quickly. When there are adjustments of this sort then it slows down getting the results for everyone. And it IS a source of a lot of errors. Not just in the official times, but also in the scoring and awards. Once a medal has been handed out it's difficult to recover it and award it to the correct person, etc. If there is a separate admin referee (typical for this caliber of meet) it does help cut down on the errors but still slows down results when they catch them and have them fixed. Speaking from the other point of view, I am still trying to get official results corrected for a meet that took place almost a month ago where a swimmer had to be reassigned because another swimmer erroneously swam in our kid's seeded heat/lane (got up on the blocks first). The coach addressed it at the meet twice, we have contacted both the meet referee and host team meet director and LSC times people. These things are very difficult to correct once the meet is over, the supporting paperwork boxed up and put into storage, and people are back at day jobs and on travel. At this point, the results have already been published, loaded into team, LSC, state, and national databases and used for records updates and recognition. Most of these will never get synched back up even if we get the meet host to fix the results and resubmit. I cannot imagine how a championships meet with a thousand swimmers would function if there was no compelling reason for them to keep up on their lane assignments.