This may have been covered before; I'm new here, so I apologize in advance.
I've been cycling rather than swimming for the past 10 years, and I recently got back in the pool as end-of-season cross training. Which of course got me curious about masters programs. I checked out the Masters Nationals psyche sheets and I was really surprised at the lack of depth of the competition.
So heres the question: why do so few swimmers choose to compete after college? In comparison to cycling, or running, it seems there are hardly any swimmers competing at a high level over the age of 22 or so. For example, the mens 30-34 100 m free nationals psyche sheet shows 10 people, ranging from :56 to 1:03! 10 people? Is that because most people don't pre-register? Or are there really only a handful of 30-34 men out there who can go under a minute in the 100m free??
In comparison to cycling, or running, it seems there are hardly any swimmers competing at a high level over the age of 22 or so
I would suggest a comparison to cycling isn't a good one. Cycling is not a very popular competitive sport for kids, but swimming is. It seems to me many more people get into cycling later in life. I think this almost ensures the depth of cycling at older ages is going to be greater than swimming. The entire demographic is just skewed compared to swimming.
In comparison to cycling, or running, it seems there are hardly any swimmers competing at a high level over the age of 22 or so
I would suggest a comparison to cycling isn't a good one. Cycling is not a very popular competitive sport for kids, but swimming is. It seems to me many more people get into cycling later in life. I think this almost ensures the depth of cycling at older ages is going to be greater than swimming. The entire demographic is just skewed compared to swimming.
