"Dara Torres should be the face of United States Masters Swimming"
Brent Rutemiller, October issue Swimming World Magazine
"Of Course, Torres isn't on this trip alone. Aside from the support of Hoffman, her daughter and her coaches, Torres relies on a team. She has a nanny who tends to Tessa, a strength coach, and physical and massage therapists who work her like a piece of dough."
John Lohn, October Swimming World Magazine
With all due respect to Mr. Rutemillier & Mr. Lohn I would suggest that they spend a little more time around the people who not only compete in the meets of our sport but with the people who are the backbone as volunteers in the day to day running of it....Dara's only contribution has been making a few workouts early in her comeback, attending a couple of meets and signing autographs and collecting checks for clinics.
If you want a "face" of Masters Swimming look to Susan Von der Lippe who beat Dara as the first person over 40 to qualify for Trials....and she did it training with a masters team 3x a week...working par time, no nanny, no trainers....no PR person....that to me this is the core of what we are in my opinion.
How about Rob Copeland who somehow manages to run this entire organization, swim extremely well, post on our forum....all without a massage therapist and pilates instructor....again this is what Masters represents...to me.
Dara has done something remarkable for anyone her age... give her credit..but lets see if at some point she wants to time at one of our meets...or be on one of our committee's to help promote masters...without an appearance fee.
Sadly USMS still does not have an "image" of what it is....I say this with all due respect to those that are attempting to make changes in the organization (turning the Titanic?)....but it is sad that USS thru Swimming World seems to have a pretty clear idea of what we should be and who the face should be....
To me Masters Swimming is as a number of people have said here a collage of people/faces/interests. So how do you market something like that? Jack of all trades and master of none most would tell you is a pretty tough sell...
Its also tough to promote growth when I would guess most swimmers....especially those that control many of the committees at USMS...simply don't want their lanes any more crowded than they already are.
So where does this leave? Slowly dying if you look at the drops in membership and lack of retention that we face....more and more coaches/clubs leaving to self insure....fewer and fewer pools interested in hosting our national championships....
So is Dara the savior? Possibly if she's willing to ramp up her PR machine and really help promote awareness of what our sport "is".....but what is it?
So many questions!
PS: Geek...i was going to use you as an example of who the face should be...but you went over to the dark side (trigeek) and lost all of our respect...well at least the respect of someone on this entire forum I would guess! :mooning:
Sadly USMS still does not have an "image" of what it is....I say this with all due respect to those that are attempting to make changes in the organization (turning the Titanic?)....but it is sad that USS thru Swimming World seems to have a pretty clear idea of what we should be and who the face should be....
To me Masters Swimming is as a number of people have said here a collage of people/faces/interests. So how do you market something like that? Jack of all trades and master of none most would tell you is a pretty tough sell...
Its also tough to promote growth when I would guess most swimmers....especially those that control many of the committees at USMS...simply don't want their lanes any more crowded than they already are.
So where does this leave? Slowly dying if you look at the drops in membership and lack of retention that we face....more and more coaches/clubs leaving to self insure....fewer and fewer pools interested in hosting our national championships....
So is Dara the savior? Possibly if she's willing to ramp up her PR machine and really help promote awareness of what our sport "is".....but what is it?
So many questions!
PS: Geek...i was going to use you as an example of who the face should be...but you went over to the dark side (trigeek) and lost all of our respect...well at least the respect of someone on this entire forum I would guess! :mooning:
