World Masters Swimmers of the Year

I agree with Paul. There should be some quality over quantity involved. All the swimmers on the list are, of course, excellent. But I just don't see how SVDL is left off that list given that she's swimming two events at the Olympic Trials and she's got a boatload of #1 rankings. Moreover, in her events, the difference between #1 and #2 is sometimes vast!

As I pointed out last year,this rewards people who age up as it rewards WRs and if you set the WRs last year and are merely secs ahead of your age group this year it doesn't count.Also SVDL set a bunch of WRs at the SPMA meet and that was after Oct 31.That said,all the winners were worthy.

There are no FINA 20007 World Rankings when the information on December 21, 2007 gets submitted for the magazine in April 2008. The FINA World Rankings get distributed two to three months later. So for that reason the best indicator of performances is the setting of FINA World Records that have been done defined by the critera by Swimming World, which is the end of the competitive year as defined by FINA. FINA updates its World Records on May 1 and November 1 of every year. So a lot of the USMS SCM Zone Championships that were after November 1 of last year did not get included as part of the critera. I think Paul was thinking of the World Records that Susan set after November 1, 2007. Also the critera is that it must be set in a Masters Sanctions Meet and not other meets. Many years ago there were swimmers in the Top Ten and they set many USMS Records and were faster than the listed FINA Word Record but because they did not set there records in masters meets, there swims were ignored by FINA. World Records can only be established in a Masters meet sanction by a Member. And this is written in FINA rule MSW 6.2 per FINA Rule Book. Since I was a member of the panel, its very time consuming to get all of the swimmers on the ballot for consideration. If Swimming World were to wait until 2007 FINA World Rankings were released, the top masters swimmers in the World for 2007 would not make the magazine until August 2008 at the earliest. I have attached a link from a discussion last year on this same subject. forums.usms.org/showthread.php

Her making cuts for the Olympic Trials as a 42 year old, non "professional" masters swimmer may be the single greatest swim ever by a masters swimmer...you ignored it because it was done at a USS meet (a whole nother topic that uSMS needs to "fix"), not to mention the 5 WR performances in 2 days at a meet the last week of November (why would you have a deadline that would not count all the Zone SCM results in your evaluation??!!)...I'd say your guidelines need some reviewing if you don't think she merits an accord as one of the top 6 (10 when you count alternates) female masters swimmers of 2007. One last note, your system is also flawed in that you don't count WR's set that are later broken...case in point Carolyn Krattli broke the SCM 100IM record and was never mentioned as a WR holder in that event?!

Sad, very sad. The criteria as laid out pretty much blow. Swimmer of the year? Which year? Fiscal? I thought a year was 1 Jan thru 31 Dec? Who cares if recognition takes till August? (August? Are you KIDDING? In today's info age it takes THAT long?) Well, at least I will never have this problem but still, something needs to be done as SVDL is IMHO THE female masters swimmer of the year. What she has done doesn't even have a word to describe it. Ah well. Paul

Why not include USMS SCY data/records? I know the whole rationale of not including it, but that doesn't mean I like it. Just because the US is the only country that swims yards, this means it doesn't get included? How many meets are in yards compared to meters in the US? How many meets are readily available (read here within driving range) for SCM or LCM? Not very many I suspect. :soapbox: How about swimming spring nationals in SCM if that's the only record that seems to count?

Who were the 6 men and 6 women? What are the guidelines for making this ranking? It must be something other than speed, otherwise it would be a redundant display of top 10 times.

Here is how we go about the initial process of creating the ballot. We collect a list of each FINA-recognized world record set at the end of the competitive year, which is defined as Nov. 1, 2006 to Oct. 31, 2007. These are based on what FINA has in its November release of its Masters world records: www.fina.org/.../rec_SC_nov07_detail.pdf www.fina.org/.../rec_LC_nov07_detail.pdf Based on these two documents, Susan finished the competitive year with 3 WRs, one in the the 100 *** on Aug. 5, 2007 and the other in the 200 IM on the same day for LCM and her 200 SCM fly on Nov. 19, 2006. The following women who made the top six based on the explanation in our article with their FINA, end of year, reported WRs. WOMEN LAURA VAL, 56, USA (8 LCM, 14 SCM) KARLYN PIPES-NEILSEN, 46, USA (10 LCM, 11 SCM) HITOMI MATSUDA, 30, JPN (5 LCM, 3 SCM) JEAN TROY, 80, USA (5 LCM, 3 SCM) CAROLINE KRATTLI, 46, USA (3 LCM, 3 SCM) METTE JACOBSEN, 34, DEN (6 SCM) When it comes down to the awards, we run them with a similar philosophy as our World Swimmers of the Year on our ballots. The swimmer that ends the year with a World Record, gets credit for that World Record on the ballot. We also can only go by what is FINA recognized. The ballot is completely based on the end of the competitive year WRs published by FINA. Hope this gives everyone some insight into the process. Also, on another note, we featured Susan prominently on Page 31 of the April issue, and had a Swimming World Radio interview as part of that feature. I believe she also had time on The Morning Swim Show.

Also the critera is that it must be set in a Masters Sanctions Meet and not other meets. Many years ago there were swimmers in the Top Ten and they set many USMS Records and were faster than the listed FINA Word Record but because they did not set there records in masters meets, there swims were ignored by FINA. World Records can only be established in a Masters meet sanction by a Member. And this is written in FINA rule MSW 6.2 per FINA Rule Book. forums.usms.org/showthread.php Very sad indeed.

What a joke....I agree Paul...:bitching: The only comment I can make is: Based on these time frames we know who the number one female masters swimmer will be in 2008. And given that assumption it's pretty weird that the top swimmer of 2008 who had an amazing 07 didn't even make the top 10???? I'm glad others will be upset for her. Knowing Susan like I do and I'm sure many of you know her better. Not being in the top 10 won't bother her for a second. :bow: