World Masters Swimmers of the Year

just looked at the list of WRs and I found the first time for Men 25-29 to be interesting. on another thread something mentioned that you have to practice with a Masters team in order to get a top 10 time. isn't there a rule for getting records too? Stefan Nystrand only participated in the Swedish Masters Open because it was in his home town, I seriously doubt that he practiced with the Masters group for his club.

Why go with FINA's timetable for recognizing swims and not go with the standard USMS seasons? If we were picking the USMS swimmers of the year, that would make sense. However, Swimming World (which we have no direct control over by the way) is selecting world swimmers. That explains a lot. Thank you. :)

Sure Mark, the next time a 41 year old female masters swimmer from another country qualifies for their trials, makes their team....or better yet can beat Susan then I would argue they should make at least the "alternate" picks from SW. And give me break on Dara and Foster.... Rich, first thing I said was that I was not taking anything away from the others selected and yes I would agree that Laura is very deserving and being on the cover is great....now I will ask you if you think Susan was not in the top 10 female masters swimmers in the world last year? Question asked, question answered. If the system SW is currently using misses that than the system is broken. And yes....I've gotten a lot meaner lately mainly due to John's cheating ways and whiny attitude!

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.

Paul, I couldn't agree with you more that Susan was one of the top female masters swimmers last year. What she has accomplished is phenomenal. In fact, as long as she is competing she'll always be one of the top regardless of whether or not she sets any new records. That isn't the point here. The fact is that Swimming World created specific criteria to try and be as objective as possible. Susan wasn't selected because she didn't fit those criteria as well as some others. If you think their system is flawed (obviously you do) you can make suggestions to change it. BTW, I plan on leading Susan's cheering section at Trials. Are you coming? Rich

Paul, You sure are getting curmudgeonly as you approach 50. Cancel your subscription to Swimming World? Man, they just featured a Masters swimmer on the cover. How cool is that. And as great a swimmer as Susan is, I think Laura Val’s selection as the most outstanding swimmer was the absolute correct choice. She is awesome and has been for decades. Listen, I agree the selection process is confusing. I thought they were joking when they selected me as I couldn’t recall swimming one meters meet in 2007. But it is what it is and a lot of people volunteer their time to help raise the profile of our sport. One other thing. If Susan’s times in non-Masters meets should count, why shouldn’t Dara’s or Mark Foster’s, as they also compete in Masters? In my opinion I think they all should count. Men’s 35-39 SCM 50 free record 21.3! Rich

Dear Grumpy Paul, You somewhat proved my point with your last statement "the next time a 41 year old female masters swimmer from their country qualifies for their trials..". So, I ask you, are there any? Do you know for certain that there aren't other qualifiers or are you basing all your argument on anecdotal evidence. Yes, we know of one case - Susan. There might be others. This is sort of like taking a survey, but only asking one person. For that matter, how many other USMS members have trial cuts? Do you know? While I understand the timing of the current selection system (with a Oct 31 cutoff) displeases you, at least it is based on information that takes into account all the swims that are reported. The idea of including trials cuts is much harder to do this with. In some countries, trial cuts are easier than they are in the US. In some countries, they don't hold trials. If you can make the B cut, you get to go. With records, at least we come closer to comparing apples to apples. I do agree with you though that John has gotten to be a real problem.

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...

Great attitude!!! If everyone in the world acted the way she does, we wouldn't have to have rules... Your absolutly correct Mel....nuf said.

Just an FYI..... I brought this up with Susan at this mornings workout...As I thought she defendend SW and then proceeded to "chick me" in workout.