I was just wondering if anyone out there knows of masters swimmers who don’t compete and that have achieved Top Ten Times, American Records, World Records, etc. in practice. I know that stories have circulated around about swimmers like Mark Spitz who have done this (although I think he did compete :)). I was just wondering if there are similar stories in the masters ranks. It seems to me that it would be highly probable in masters swimming because so many of its members do not actually swim at meets. Therefore, I would think there are people out there who achieve these (unofficial) times during a practice session and are relatively unknown. If you’ve got a story to share, please do.
The first thing that crossed my mind was weight training. Lots of people pay lots of money to join health clubs, hire personal trainers, etc. with their only goal being to get in better shape. Very few people lifting weights at a club will ever enter a bodybuilding competition.
This is a good point, although I don't really consider weight lifting a sport as the highest level of competition in that arena is the drug fueled class.
But, if someone trained as hard in weights as we do in swimming (6+ hours a week), had a coach and a training group, I suspect there might be competitions to enter.
The first thing that crossed my mind was weight training. Lots of people pay lots of money to join health clubs, hire personal trainers, etc. with their only goal being to get in better shape. Very few people lifting weights at a club will ever enter a bodybuilding competition.
This is a good point, although I don't really consider weight lifting a sport as the highest level of competition in that arena is the drug fueled class.
But, if someone trained as hard in weights as we do in swimming (6+ hours a week), had a coach and a training group, I suspect there might be competitions to enter.
