Why so many 45-49 swimmers?

I'm going with the I'm so fat I can't stand it (ISFICSI) theory. And the phenomenon is not limited to USMS. A friend with ISFICSI got into tennis recently, and sees the same thing -- a bunch of hyper-competitive, slightly paunchy middle age guys looking to reclaim some either lost or never found glory. At 46, I'm right there with them. Look at the bright side -- you don't live in Oregon. Dennis Baker ages up into my (our) bracket this year.

Lots of good and interesting points so far. I was an AAU swimmer in the 70s. I didn't swim college (wasn't Div1 material at all). It seems then that 5 years ago the bubble should have been 40-44, 5 years before that 35-39, etc. Without actual data, does that seem true?

I thought it was midlife crisis. One last shot at, "hey, I can still do it!"

You're absolutely right, Anne.....all you have to do is look at the top ten times in 100 free for 50-54 yr-old women for the year 2000; then for the year 2004. In 2000 the 10th time was 1:06.77 but in 2004 it was 1:00.88.....almost a 6 second drop!! I think the first wave of those who swam some in college hit about then....I'm just happy that I moved up in 2005.... I continue to be amazed that we have 50 year-old women who consistently swim about 1:00.00 or under; when I was a kid I don't think anyone would have thought that "old ladies" COULD swim that fast. There seem to be a couple of bubbles.....you're right about the 45 year old men....the 40 year-old women aren't too shabby either. In many of these age-group, aging up doesn't confer a super great advantage, time-wise! Sally

I'm going with the I'm so fat I can't stand it (ISFICSI) theory. Maybe this explains why there are so many full body fastkins at Masters meets.....

There was a USMS registration report that had an age and sex breakdown that I saw at the USAS convention years ago. If I remember correctly the most populated age groups that would be updated to todays time frame would be the four age groups that are discussed here. That would be the Women's and Mens age groups of 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, and 55-59. I not sure about the actual numbers and what age group currently has the most but I would bet it would be both the 40-44 and 45-49 for both age groups followed by the 50-54 age groups. I would agree with both Ann and Sally and they have the USMS Top Ten to back there statements up with regard to times and records. I would also agree about the statements about Title IX and say if you did a survey of women in those age groups you would find that more of them competed in collegiate swimming than the older age groups above them. I would also say the same thing about Club swimming at the AAU/USA level, in that more stayed with swimming competition than the older age groups. Another point I will bring up besides the population issue is that for Men there were more opportunties to swim in collegiate swimming in 1966 to 1986 then at any other time. The reasons for this are as follows: 1. No Title IX, so all of the revenue could be spent on Men's college sports, which means there were more college swimming programs at schools and more swimming scholarships for Men. So all of the schools in every conference at Division I, II, and III had programs and more men participated. 2. The AAU age group swimming program had a tremendous boom in growth and interest in the sport. A lot of the kids from the 1960's and early 1970's were in competitive swimming programs and wanted to continue and did in High School and College because programs were available to Men and they took advantage of them. 3. The Women were about 10 years behind in my estimation than the Men because opportunities were not available to them until the late 1970's and early 1980's. However at the Club level they were not as far behind and interest in the sport of swimming for Women would be about 4 years behind at the Club level. So today that would equate with the Women's age groups of 50-54 on down with larger increases as you go down in the age groups. 4. Because of the cutbacks in college swimming programs and competition from other sports, I think there was a dropoff sometime in the late 1980's and early 1990's. I think that is one of the reasons you do not see heavy populations in the 35-39 and on down in the age groups. If you were to look at this 15 years ago you would see the same results in the younger age groups in USMS and I believe in 10 years time you are going to see that the 50-54 and the 55-59 age groups being the most populated.

Originally posted by patrick I too am in the same age group and this is just conjecture: for those of us that started in the mid to late 60s, I think there was a Mexico City/Counsilman/Spitz/Hall Sr. bounce that got us attracted to the sport, secondly--the invention of goggles (we were the first age group that raced in them--or could race dive rather), suit and pool technology improved greatly, all which added up to some incredible racing and time drops especially in the 70s. Go back and look at times from 1970 and then compare them to 1979. You won't see those kind of time drops in any other decade, which I believe can be credited to the better pools, equipment, and sheer number of competitors. Any other thoughts on this? This is exactly right. One thing about other comments tyhough, we are onthe down flow from the baby boomers. 1960-1964 had a small birhtrate. Some of those guys are intheis group. One thing about me was htat my high school reinstated a swimming program. It hadn't had ne since the early 60s. The building had no pool and wwe drove one mile to get to the pool. Oddly, soem of the guys I swam with in high school now have kids swimming and we have a pool at the high school buiding.

Sorry the columns don't line up, I think you'll still be able to figure this out. This is 2005 data, thanks to Esther Lyman, our National Registrar. The peak is actually in the 40-45 age group. AGE Women Men Grand Total 85+ 54 89 143 80+ 110 176 286 75+ 179 292 471 70+ 258 444 702 65+ 386 650 1036 60+ 614 1234 1848 55+ 1096 2043 3139 50+ 2071 2817 4888 45+ 2703 3608 6311 40+ 3006 3500 6506 35+ 2517 2853 5370 30+ 2274 2010 4284 25+ 2195 1465 3660 18+ 1382 767 2149 Grand Total 18845 21948 40793

Originally posted by jpheather This is 2005 data, thanks to Esther Lyman, our National Registrar. The peak is actually in the 40-45 age group. Is there data from 2000? Curious if the peak was still at 40-45 ("mid-life crisis" model), or if the peak was at 35-39 ("baby boomer aging" model).

Hey Mark, I remember swimming at Colonies/Dixies Zones in 1997 and the toughest age group being the 40-44 for both men and women. I think GoRedFoxes is right about the mid-life crisis thing. As for me, I've noticed this year that although there might be a greater number of 30-34 women registered than 25-29, there are wayyy less 30-34's competing at meets. This was especially true at IL States and SCNats. I think you often get a dip in the women at 30-34 because that's when a lot of us are pregnant or have very small kids and can't tote them around to meets!