"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.
Pool racing can certainly be intimidating to the novice swimmer, and with the shorter races they seem to get less of that sense of accomplishment. I believe that if we could get a LOT more open water swims available, we could grow significantly.
You're probably right. But the sport of "swimming" is not just about distance and OW, IMHO. Why is longer necessarily better? Personally, I have a fine sense of accomplishment racing shorter distances, although I may be an oddity. I certainly feel like I train hard. And I've heard people on the forum saying that ompleting a 200 fly or 400 IM is an accomplishment. In the summer, where I live, there are more many more OW or distance swims than pool meets. True, the local bay swim is not conducive to novice swimmers, but the Reston Lake Swim is -- if they sign up on time. But if swimming is only in the OW, count me out, I'll go back to running. OW is hell on shoulders. And I like pools. I realize the great outdoors seems to be a greater attraction. But can't we have more meets AND more OW swims?
Pool racing can certainly be intimidating to the novice swimmer, and with the shorter races they seem to get less of that sense of accomplishment. I believe that if we could get a LOT more open water swims available, we could grow significantly.
You're probably right. But the sport of "swimming" is not just about distance and OW, IMHO. Why is longer necessarily better? Personally, I have a fine sense of accomplishment racing shorter distances, although I may be an oddity. I certainly feel like I train hard. And I've heard people on the forum saying that ompleting a 200 fly or 400 IM is an accomplishment. In the summer, where I live, there are more many more OW or distance swims than pool meets. True, the local bay swim is not conducive to novice swimmers, but the Reston Lake Swim is -- if they sign up on time. But if swimming is only in the OW, count me out, I'll go back to running. OW is hell on shoulders. And I like pools. I realize the great outdoors seems to be a greater attraction. But can't we have more meets AND more OW swims?
