"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.
Parents
Former Member
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've said this before and still think it's true: OW is rock 'n roll and pool races are Carnegie Hall. Anyone who can strum three chords badly can pretend they are rock stars, but there is no faking the cello. Most people will get more satisfaction from finishing a slow mile than a slow 50, simply because almost anyone can complete 50 yards - albeit slowly, so there are no bragging points there. But saying you swam a mile (and the t-shirt) , which most people can't/won't do, gives you some shot at that amp that "goes to 11".
I bet that you will not grow USMS from the pool side. However, a concerted push to attract some of the OW newbies into the dark side will work to some degree. (Hey, I've done 2 pool meets, so anything is possible.) Maybe peppering some of the larger OW swims with USMS info/applications in the goodies packet might work.
Just a thought,
LBJ
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've said this before and still think it's true: OW is rock 'n roll and pool races are Carnegie Hall. Anyone who can strum three chords badly can pretend they are rock stars, but there is no faking the cello. Most people will get more satisfaction from finishing a slow mile than a slow 50, simply because almost anyone can complete 50 yards - albeit slowly, so there are no bragging points there. But saying you swam a mile (and the t-shirt) , which most people can't/won't do, gives you some shot at that amp that "goes to 11".
I bet that you will not grow USMS from the pool side. However, a concerted push to attract some of the OW newbies into the dark side will work to some degree. (Hey, I've done 2 pool meets, so anything is possible.) Maybe peppering some of the larger OW swims with USMS info/applications in the goodies packet might work.
Just a thought,
LBJ
