Why more men?

In response to Swm4life's allegations about Men being more likely to cheat at practice and flirt with young swimmers of the opposite sex compared to women: After reading those comments I actually started to feel bad about being a guy.....You don't happen to also be a big fan of Mellisa Ethridge do you?...(just joking of course!) Newmastersswimmer

Michael: Maybe you're a little defensive? You spend 5 paragraphs raking Heather over the coals and then call him defensive? It's not required to agree with him. Our team is 50/50, I think. I've never given it much thought, we are all a bunch of swimmers.

I think the reason you don't have many women swimming Masters in the 20-25, 25-29 age groups is that many are having children and spending all their spare time with their babies and children. I'm 24 and this statement offends me. I'm not popping out children and I don't believe that's what people think they are supposed to do when they are 25. None of my friends my age are married, and none have kids. They don't swim because they don't want to. Some gained too much weight and didn't want to get back, some peaked when they were 17, some just flat out get sick thinking about swimming anymore. It's most certainly not because all of us age 20-30 are having children. Not all women are baby farms. For that matter, there are plenty of mothers and fathers who are swimming.

You spend 5 paragraphs raking Heather over the coals and then call him defensive?. Geek: Yes, I was "defending" myself against MH's non-sequitor attacks and outright threats, some of which you were not privy to. My response was not particularly inflammatory or of the "raking over the coals" ilk if you actually read it rather than just ranting about the length. Thankfully, as Frank points out, this thread may be moot anyway.

Our club is slightly more women than men, especially 45-55, who also seem to go to meets more readily than the guys. Last prov. champs 9 women 1 guy! No I don't know why, except we are a very friendly club, lots of social stuff. However, I was shocked to learn that a female swimmer who hadn't turned out this year had been given an ultimatum: choose the marriage or swimming. She has two kids, preschool-ish and had only been averaging 1 or 2 workouts a week (week-nights, where he was looking after the kids). In all other respects she is the primary caregiver & works part-time as well. She's not swimming.

Even in my age group days(some 20..years ago) I have to say I trained better with the men than with the women for some reason. I guess it was a mental thing on my part to want to keep up with the men, since at the time(you know during the stone age as my kids would say) I was usually the top freestyler and flyer on my team. I still love the challenge today (no generalizations intended here). :groovy: Donna

I read your whole post, even when the paragraphs exceeded the fingers on my non-typing hand.

I think the reason you don't have many women swimming Masters in the 20-25, 25-29 age groups is that many are having children and spending all their spare time with their babies and children. This statement is incorrect.

shouldn't this be in PM, leslie?

Funny this. According to your analysis, it should all have been the subject of a PM. But I guess you were enjoying your USMS audience. He's making a statement for EVERYONE to avoid using these boards to argue or insult one another. I think your statement was out of line also. Not everyone is here to be insulted.