Im canceling my subscription to Swimming World.
Yes all of the swimmers picked were VERY worthy and nothing against any of them or their accomplishments.
But your going to tell me that the panel who choose these 6 men and 6 women (and 8 runner ups) didn't deem Susan Von der Lippe worthy of this honor:
I guess something like a total of almost 30 Top 10 times in all 3 courses didn't count? nor did the tally of #1 times on those lists? And simply breaking 5 SCM world records over 2 days is...as we all know...a joke.
And I know this is a reach now...stay with me on this...but being the oldest female swimmer and the first over 40 to make Olympic Trials cuts all while working a job, raising kids/a family, training only 3x a week....yeah, yeah I know thats pushing it...so I won't even mention she made her second trials cuts a month ago since that was done over at an evil USS meet and SW is probably correct in their belief it "doesn't count" in the masters world.
Susan...nice try in 2007...but you'll need to step up a bit more in 2008 if you want to be considered.
When I talked to Susan at the Colorado State meet a couple of weeks back I was teasing her a bit about the Olympic Trials. I pointed out that she still had a chance of nailing down a spot in the 200 IM before Omaha. Her response was something like 'Are you kidding? I've already going to have enough work just to show up for these two events. Mostly I just wanted to get on deck with the other swimmers & swimming more events means I won't be able to enjoy watching as much swimming.'
Last summer we were at a Mission Viejo long course meet together and I ask her how much LC training she was getting. Her reply was 'This is it.' She also gave me a beer right after I swam my last event.
Great attitude!!! If everyone in the world acted the way she does, we wouldn't have to have rules...
Mel...even better after she made her 2nd trials cuts in the 100 fly a few weeks back we called to congratulate her and happened to catch her between trials and finals at panda express...gotta love it!
So listen...I agree that there is no perfect system but I also think certain events (such as making trials cuts) should be able to play a part in the decision making process. SW has done some nice articles on SVDL and I think we all appreciate it...but I wanted to bring this up to show how I think the system is flawed.
When I talked to Susan at the Colorado State meet a couple of weeks back I was teasing her a bit about the Olympic Trials. I pointed out that she still had a chance of nailing down a spot in the 200 IM before Omaha. Her response was something like 'Are you kidding? I've already going to have enough work just to show up for these two events. Mostly I just wanted to get on deck with the other swimmers & swimming more events means I won't be able to enjoy watching as much swimming.'
Last summer we were at a Mission Viejo long course meet together and I ask her how much LC training she was getting. Her reply was 'This is it.' She also gave me a beer right after I swam my last event.
Great attitude!!! If everyone in the world acted the way she does, we wouldn't have to have rules...
Mel...even better after she made her 2nd trials cuts in the 100 fly a few weeks back we called to congratulate her and happened to catch her between trials and finals at panda express...gotta love it!
So listen...I agree that there is no perfect system but I also think certain events (such as making trials cuts) should be able to play a part in the decision making process. SW has done some nice articles on SVDL and I think we all appreciate it...but I wanted to bring this up to show how I think the system is flawed.
