Why is it that Masters level swimmers who participate in USS sanctioned meets under a separate USS registration can't have their times automatically qualify for USMS rankings and USMS National records? What is the reason for this separation? The rules with USMS and USS seem parallel enough to allow USS swims to qualify under USMS ranking and records. Do we care if elite older swimmers in their 30's (say Gary Hall Jr.) effectively end up owning the USMS national record by default? Is USMS afraid of merging to closely with USS? Why wouldn't USMS want to recognize the true best performance by and old man/women in the pool regardless of whether their card said USS or USMS on it?
John Smith
This seems like a mostly theoretical question.
Why would a non-USMS swimmer who is registered only with USS and only swims in USS meets even be interested in masters records? I assume he/she would be world class anyway, in which event they wouldn't be looking at masters records. They'd be worrying about USS records and qualifying for National teams or Pan Pac teams.
Now if a USMS swimmer swims a USS meet, I think those times should automatically count. They're a USMS swimmer who's probably just looking for some serious competition. But I don't think purely USS Olympic-type swimmers should dominate the masters record board.
If they did, there would be a disconnect in the masters records. The records of the 35 & Under category could theoretically be dominated by elite USS swimmers who are still going strong. The 40 & over records would generally be held by real USMS swimmers.
This seems like a mostly theoretical question.
Why would a non-USMS swimmer who is registered only with USS and only swims in USS meets even be interested in masters records? I assume he/she would be world class anyway, in which event they wouldn't be looking at masters records. They'd be worrying about USS records and qualifying for National teams or Pan Pac teams.
Now if a USMS swimmer swims a USS meet, I think those times should automatically count. They're a USMS swimmer who's probably just looking for some serious competition. But I don't think purely USS Olympic-type swimmers should dominate the masters record board.
If they did, there would be a disconnect in the masters records. The records of the 35 & Under category could theoretically be dominated by elite USS swimmers who are still going strong. The 40 & over records would generally be held by real USMS swimmers.
