"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.
I think we might be missing the forest for the trees. Sure, it might appear that USMS is declining but take a look at swimming as a whole. I think that overall it is declining because it is such a 'niche' sport and is not that glamorous compared to other more 'mainstream' sports. I do not think this is just a USMS issue but is instead an issue that faces the ENTIRE swimming community.
In my area, Montgomery County, MD, I see evidence of the slow, steady decline of swimming. Where I grew up and swam 30+ years ago, there were 5 very large summer age group teams where now there is 1 large and 2 medium programs. There are many issues that contributed to that but first and foremost is that swimming is a sport that requires more commitment than any other sport.
It is good that we are coming into an Olympic year as this helps to great a ground swell of interest in swimming. I just hope that the swimming community can capture interest and build on it.
Paul
I think we might be missing the forest for the trees. Sure, it might appear that USMS is declining but take a look at swimming as a whole. I think that overall it is declining because it is such a 'niche' sport and is not that glamorous compared to other more 'mainstream' sports. I do not think this is just a USMS issue but is instead an issue that faces the ENTIRE swimming community.
In my area, Montgomery County, MD, I see evidence of the slow, steady decline of swimming. Where I grew up and swam 30+ years ago, there were 5 very large summer age group teams where now there is 1 large and 2 medium programs. There are many issues that contributed to that but first and foremost is that swimming is a sport that requires more commitment than any other sport.
It is good that we are coming into an Olympic year as this helps to great a ground swell of interest in swimming. I just hope that the swimming community can capture interest and build on it.
Paul
