Dunno about selfish, it just seems a tad wimpy to me...as much as one can say that about a 41-year-old AR-holder. This whole "I'm so old I can't see the scoreboard and I have aches and pains" thing is getting...old.
Racers like to race.
I don't care how old she is, she's not made of glass. She swims 25,000 a week, does other training, and has hired people full time whose sole purpose is to help her recover. She can handle a few races, it didn't seem to hurt her at Trials.
True. Only real masters swimmers should be allowed to whine. At his point, she should just can the rhetoric and swim without "aging" herself every nanosecond.
Torres' decision to drop the 100 does not leave the US without a representative in that event, as several folks are claiming.
If someone claimed that I must have missed the post.
Sorry, Kirk, but I disagree…I think it is a VERY fair comparison, especially for “big” meets and especially if you are in a position to be competing for number one like both swimmers discussed here. They are both going very aggressively for the big prize (however they define it.) The only difference is the relative quality of competition between the two organizations.
Racing is racing whether you are paid or not, or on a USMS club team or USAS national team. At the end of the day, you want to win your priority races.
You make a judgment call – sometimes agonizingly so – and do what is right for you. Sometimes you drop your less important races – we do it in USMS and they do it in USAS (see Phelps’ 100 FR.)
Personally, I’d love to swim a lot of events on short rest…but I have the wisdom to know I don’t do well in that scenario. And I’d rather do well in my priority races than do mediocre in all of them – again my preference.
This is a matter of meet management and acknowledging the recovery needed of older swimmers to compete at their best. Most of us do it…even the top dog masters…planned or not.
And thinking that a 41 year-old can come even close to managing the same tough program like Phelps, who is almost half her age…well THAT is not fair at all.
I’m not at all trying to disparage anyone here, especially John. Just pointing out the double standard that it’s okay for one to scratch a race on your Master’s club team to recover, but it’s not for a 41 year old USAS feeling the same aches and pains we do.
This is a really unfair comparison. John Smith, like all of us, is swimming purely for himself in masters swimming. Hopefully Dara doesn't think she's only swimming for herself at the Olympics.
Glider,
I think it is readily apparent that Dara does NOT feel the same aches and pains as the rest of us her age. Secondly, there is no exemption clause after you make the team to call an "age" handicap for your special recovery needs in between events.
Lindsay,
I see no contradiction. People who are suspect of Dara's PED use expect more out of her performances for precisely the same reason.
John Smith
Glider,
I think it is readily apparent that Dara does NOT feel the same aches and pains as the rest of us her age. Secondly, there is no exemption clause after you make the team to call an "age" handicap for your special recovery needs in between events.
Lindsay,
I see no contradiction. People who are suspect of Dara's PED use expect more out of her performances for precisely the same reason.
John Smith
John, question....please don't take this the wrong way........
Somebody eluded to this earlier in the thread.....
Do you have a personal grudge against Dara?
I ask this because no matter how many people disagree with you on this or explain logical reasons for her doing what she is doing.....hell she even said this was what she was going to do prior to Trials....You still continue to bash her decision as being selfish.
Here is a question for you:
If you were ranked 7th in the world in the 100, probably not a shot at the top three, and you were 5th in the world in the 50 with a pretty good shot of making the podium.......You would actually swim the additional swims knowing it would wear on you for your best event?
tjburk,
Garret Weber-Gale is swimming the same events. How would you feel if he did the same thing? Why do the same people that give Dara the benefit of the doubt regarding PEDs and hail her stunning natural abilities also feel the need to protect her from too much effort at the Games? This is strange.
Evil Smith and I are merely here to balance the discussion..... :-)
John Smith
If the circumstances were the same for him I would not have a problem with it! Specially if the one event could bring a medal home and the other more than likely would not!
If that makes her selfish....then I can honestly say I would be just as selfish in that position. As would most of the people on here I think. Bringing home that one medal sure would feel better than none. And the small chance that swimming all of those extra swims would ruin my chances at one......that is an easy decision for me.
Hey John,
Saw an old pic on the SAMS site recently of a Smith doing fly...was that you?
From what I've seen and read and heard, she most definitely feels the aches and pains. Something about feeling like a tank ran over her one morning.
And evidently there is an exemption clause, because I'm pretty sure she just triggered it.;-)
Glider,
I think it is readily apparent that Dara does NOT feel the same aches and pains as the rest of us her age. Secondly, there is no exemption clause after you make the team to call an "age" handicap for your special recovery needs in between events.
Lindsay,
I see no contradiction. People who are suspect of Dara's PED use expect more out of her performances for precisely the same reason.
John Smith
