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.
To add on to Michael's reply, here's some more numbers from our meet results database and nationals meet entry database:
In 2007, we had:
44,134 Members
8,680 Competed in any meet (19.67%)
2,122 Entered at least 1 Nationals (4.81%)
Thanks for breaking that out. I definitely do not feel out of place now for not doing meets, and it sounds like my team fits the overall averages fairly closely.
I also still stand by my comments that USMS should be open and inclusive for all swimmers, regardless of if they do meets or not.
To add on to Michael's reply, here's some more numbers from our meet results database and nationals meet entry database:
In 2007, we had:
44,134 Members
8,680 Competed in any meet (19.67%)
2,122 Entered at least 1 Nationals (4.81%)
Thanks for breaking that out. I definitely do not feel out of place now for not doing meets, and it sounds like my team fits the overall averages fairly closely.
I also still stand by my comments that USMS should be open and inclusive for all swimmers, regardless of if they do meets or not.
