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.
Are there any concrete numbers as to:
* The total number of registered swimmers with USMS
* The total number of USMS swimmers who swim at least 1 meet a year
* The number who swims at 1 or more national events a year?
Total # of registered swimmers with USMS 2007 44,134
Total # of swimmers who swim in at least 1 meet a year - I would guess about 20% - I did a check of how many Pacific swimmers competed in at least one event (pool or open water) a few years ago and it was about 20%. We had about and still have about 10,000 swimmers, I dont think it would change much in a normal year. In 2006 we had Worlds in our LMSC - as i recall we had about 1,400 swimmers who competed in just Worlds so that would skew the results. Worlds had over 3,000 USMS Swimmer in the pool and over 5000 swimmers total.
New England Masters has about 1600 members and has about 800 swimmers who will compete at their scy meet. That is 50% of their LMSC competing.
The number who will compete at 1 or more nationals - I dont know of any one who has totaled that. But if you want a rough idea take the total of the SCY and LCM nationals and subtract 400. That would give you a rough number. SCY nationals varies from about 1500 to 2000 a 33% variability.
For those who want to compete, it is a lot of fun. I dont know if our Pacific's or USMS Championships can get much bigger than they are now. The meets are multiday meets that take up those days. If people dont want to compete that is fine, they wont make top ten times or any records - if you want a record you have to earn it and part of that is going to a meet.
michael
Are there any concrete numbers as to:
* The total number of registered swimmers with USMS
* The total number of USMS swimmers who swim at least 1 meet a year
* The number who swims at 1 or more national events a year?
Total # of registered swimmers with USMS 2007 44,134
Total # of swimmers who swim in at least 1 meet a year - I would guess about 20% - I did a check of how many Pacific swimmers competed in at least one event (pool or open water) a few years ago and it was about 20%. We had about and still have about 10,000 swimmers, I dont think it would change much in a normal year. In 2006 we had Worlds in our LMSC - as i recall we had about 1,400 swimmers who competed in just Worlds so that would skew the results. Worlds had over 3,000 USMS Swimmer in the pool and over 5000 swimmers total.
New England Masters has about 1600 members and has about 800 swimmers who will compete at their scy meet. That is 50% of their LMSC competing.
The number who will compete at 1 or more nationals - I dont know of any one who has totaled that. But if you want a rough idea take the total of the SCY and LCM nationals and subtract 400. That would give you a rough number. SCY nationals varies from about 1500 to 2000 a 33% variability.
For those who want to compete, it is a lot of fun. I dont know if our Pacific's or USMS Championships can get much bigger than they are now. The meets are multiday meets that take up those days. If people dont want to compete that is fine, they wont make top ten times or any records - if you want a record you have to earn it and part of that is going to a meet.
michael
