Controversy...Is it all about winning!

Vladimir: Thanks for the followup. If you go to one of the posts in this thread I asked if Team TYR was involved in the set up that you answer so thoroughly. As a Coach and a Master Swimmer myself I have heard of the arrangement that you are talking about and I posted this question and got an answer that "The folks at TYR have been great and we have gotten some awesome gear" and that is about all the explanation that I got. I was under the impression that Rich Saeger set this up for everyone as a neutral club and that everyone knows everyone and that were are connecting with old friends, enjoying masters swimming, and trying to create a fast relay. Everyone at the meet will have a good time. There was never an explanation of the arrangement that you explained and I had heard about that arrangement and think that its perfectly above board and support it in todays professional market. I said in my question to them that this concept has been going on in swimming and maybe its going to be explored into the masters market. Again, there was no answer from the people that I posted the question and if there was I probably would have not bothered to research more. So you, as one of the fastest swimmers in the world show up on there roster like this and it was not explained at all. When I saw your name on the roster I remembered when you swam and have several videos that I have in my archive of you at the Olympics, World Championships, and Goodwill Games. I did a search on the USMS website and there was no activity of you swimming in USMS. I went to the current top times sight and didn't see a mention of your name and until fatboy came on here to tell us about your masters swimming, I did not know about it. I did do a google search and thats what came up. If you notice I never said anything about those articles and they are there as a matter of public record. In fact, that is how I found out about your coaching in Illinois. There was an article in Swimming World many years ago about the state of Russian swimming. In that article and in fact its documented in the book "Gold in the Water" they talked about Russians swimmers coming over here and leaving Russia. In fact they said that Sergei Mariniuk did that before he attained is green card. That is the only reason why I brought that up and that as nothing to do with you. Sometimes on this website its hard to know when someone is joking and when someone is serious. I am being serioius now and I think its great you are here and I hope that you have great success in all your endevors in coaching and swimming regardless of who you are swimming for. As for John Smith, he has stated that he wants to be the most controversial and irritating person in masters swimming. I sometimes feel I am helping him do this by disagreeing with him so much that I am going to win the title away from him as the most irritating and contoversial swimmer here and that is a title I do not want. The foreign swimmers thread is where everyone disagrees the most and that is why I brought it up in a humorlessly fashion and not seriously which I probably shouldn't have done. Also to the Smiths. In case you didn't know it, it was ME that brought up your concerns about the athlete representation at the World Championships in the International meeting at the USAS convention and changing the current method to a National Delegation entry. I was told at the meeting that bringing this up now was like charging a brick wall. I had said last year on the Recruiting thread that if these changes happened the controversy would go away. Both of you said that you would work with Mark Gill to get something on the table for our FINA rep to take to the meeting in China. I don't believe that ever happened and until it does happen then we are going to have this endless debate for a long time. I do agree with both of your assessments that this is a World Swimming Festival compared to the World Championships that Swimming has. In closing Vladimir, I am sorry if I offended you in any way. That was not my intention at all. Over here especially with what happened to Kicker Vencil, people have become suspect of articles like that. And I am sorry to the Smith's if I offended them because of this confusion. I still don't agree with what you are doing on this type of arrangement and its perfectly legal by all of the masters rules of swimming. I don't agree with this because I don't feel its in line with the core objectives of building, serving, and educating the USMS membership. With that being said good luck getting as many World Records as you can.

Originally posted by swimgold92 Thank you Frank! You didn't offended me in any way!!! No worries :D Sergei Mariniuk is not going to compete at Worlds...he is running "computer" show at Sr. and Jr. Nationals (Irvine). P.S. You've mention something about videos...Is it possible to get a copy? Great and thanks. And yes I will get you a copy and try to get it done before the I leave for Stanford. You will move first to the line. I have some swim footage of some other masters swimmers such as Mike Ross (Lets Race) and Jeff Commings that I plan to make for them sometime in the future.

Vlad, your TYR team mate Rich Saeger just swam a 1:57 to lead off a world record (160+) 800 LCM free relay. He went out in a 58.X. He was by far the fastest leg of the relay that went 8:15. He swims at our pool on the weekends and is just amazing to watch. Really nice guy, too. I can't wait to see what all of team tyr does for worlds. Its inspiring to see what some folks can do as they get older. Kevin

58--59...Nice split Rich!!! And this is before taper. I only can dream about one second difference between first and second 100's. About 200IM...I think it's yard time.

Thank you Frank! You didn't offended me in any way!!! No worries :D Sergei Mariniuk is not going to compete at Worlds...he is running "computer" show at Sr. and Jr. Nationals (Irvine). P.S. You've mention something about videos...Is it possible to get a copy?

Frank, Thank's again!!! Thanks for bringing up those names :D Do you know if Mike Ross trying to get Rich's WR?

Perhaps he has been training on Mars, the ultimate in high-altitude prep. I'm sure the trusty announcer will point out that he has seeded 4th fastest all time...

For interest, this is how it works in the UK. You can be a member of as many clubs as you want at the same time, there's no need to jump from one club to the other. So called "conglomerates" are common here, and exist on different levels. There are people in the armed forces who may train with a local club, but then swim for the Royal Navy, say, in competitions, to have a larger pool of swimmers. At the Worlds, they are swimming as British Armed Forces, to up the numbers even more, combining Royal Navy, Royal Air Force etc. Another example is Spencer. Spencer is a real club, with training sessions, but they have a lot of members who don't train at any of the club's sessions, and many will train with a local club as well as competing for Spencer at competitions. Spencer was the top scoring club at the GB Masters Championships this year. Then there are some "clubs" that aren't real clubs, such as Hadrian Masters. There are no Hadrian Masters training sessions, it's a club that exists only to bring swimmers together from other clubs at competitions. One thing that limits this at the GB Masters is that each club can only enter one team in each age group per relay event, so there is a limit to how many people can join the same club to be in a competitive relay team. Some people in the UK get upset about conglomerates, most people don't seem to care. As has been articulated already in this thread, the people who get most upset seem to be those who belong to clubs with a large local membership and would have a chance of relay gold if it weren't for the conglomerates. However, I do feel that it puts swimmers from some countries at a disadvantage if their national rules mean that they can't get together for relays for Worlds in the way that swimmers from other countries can.

Originally posted by Peter Cruise Hey Vlad, welcome to the forums. I was wondering about a swimmer (in a different thread) whose seed time at worlds for 200im 35-39 is a very fast 1:58.16 by name of Rustem Salikhov. Have you heard of him & if so, is the time for real? Just curious. Peter: I did a google search on this guy and this is what I found. I should probably stop doing this and learn my lesson. But then again if Rusteem sees this he can come on here and join and then he can tell us how he got those incredible seed times especially the 200 IM. groups.yahoo.com/.../502

Skip, since you asked, I have been training well. I would not have said so on Friday of last week, but I had a good meet this past weekend at the Bay State Games here in MA. I now recognize that I complain more than anyone I know. Vlad, I am glad to get the chance to say "nice job" on your 100 free this past season. I only got about 1 day worth of being too big for my britches before a friend sent me the link to your swim. Congratulations on getting the USMS record. I look forward to meeting you at Worlds. It will be fun to race.