USA Swimming blow's it again

I need to help clarify this subject. USA Swimming may be entrenched in its ways but it is not disorganized. Jessica Hardy problem... caused only by the lab, not any thing USA S could have known or done at the time. The lab has taken total responsibility for the delays. And just to be a grammar Nazi, there should not be an apostrophe in the word "blows" in the title. To the point, USA S has done a remarkable job of public relations beforehand and will reap rewards after the Olympics are over. Spending millions on an ad or campaign during the event that has a dubious or marginal possibility of return would just be wasteful. For all of the things USA Swimming is, it is not stupid. Michael, My criticism of USA-S (and USMS) is that in my opinion neither organization has the "killer" attitude that could propel the sports to much higher participation rates, generate higher sponsorship $$ and be more accessible to the general public than the every 4 year Olympic gig....hence my opinion that they are "coasting". USA-S & USMS are businesses whether they want to accept it or not and they should be modeling their operations like other successful businesses...they are in the competition of sport...it would be nice to see some competitiveness. With a once in a lifetime swimmer in the spotlight the attitude is that its "enough" PR/advertising just having the events on TV...in my experience in the business world there is never enough and opportunities like this rarely if ever present themselves so take every advantage of them. As for being disorganized, I rest my case in regard to the fax in the office JH situation (there are some many problems with how everything was handled its not worth the time to dwell on them but a jury sure will), scheduling trials so late, all the poor "details" the team is missing in races (Hoff's touch for example). The other thing I'd like to see is an organized "feeder" system that is better at identifying young prospects and developing them thru a system of USA-S training camps. I'd also like to see more effort put into tying together all of swimmings organizations (USS, USMS, NCAA) into a more unified strategy of keeping people in touch with and involved with the sport from birth. It still blows me away at how many high school kids leave the sport never knowing they can continue on in USMS...they simply fall thru the cracks in many cases and rediscover often in mid life....USA-S & NCAA needs to recognize that once these swimmers leave their organizations they become the parents that bring kids back into the sport...coordinate better and maybe we see more pools being built rather than closed, more colleges offering swimming programs than dropping them and masters clubs doubling and tripling their members.

I need to help clarify this subject. USA Swimming may be entrenched in its ways but it is not disorganized. Jessica Hardy problem... caused only by the lab, not any thing USA S could have known or done at the time. The lab has taken total responsibility for the delays. And just to be a grammar Nazi, there should not be an apostrophe in the word "blows" in the title. To the point, USA S has done a remarkable job of public relations beforehand and will reap rewards after the Olympics are over. Spending millions on an ad or campaign during the event that has a dubious or marginal possibility of return would just be wasteful. For all of the things USA Swimming is, it is not stupid. Michael, My criticism of USA-S (and USMS) is that in my opinion neither organization has the "killer" attitude that could propel the sports to much higher participation rates, generate higher sponsorship $$ and be more accessible to the general public than the every 4 year Olympic gig....hence my opinion that they are "coasting". USA-S & USMS are businesses whether they want to accept it or not and they should be modeling their operations like other successful businesses...they are in the competition of sport...it would be nice to see some competitiveness. With a once in a lifetime swimmer in the spotlight the attitude is that its "enough" PR/advertising just having the events on TV...in my experience in the business world there is never enough and opportunities like this rarely if ever present themselves so take every advantage of them. As for being disorganized, I rest my case in regard to the fax in the office JH situation (there are some many problems with how everything was handled its not worth the time to dwell on them but a jury sure will), scheduling trials so late, all the poor "details" the team is missing in races (Hoff's touch for example). The other thing I'd like to see is an organized "feeder" system that is better at identifying young prospects and developing them thru a system of USA-S training camps. I'd also like to see more effort put into tying together all of swimmings organizations (USS, USMS, NCAA) into a more unified strategy of keeping people in touch with and involved with the sport from birth. It still blows me away at how many high school kids leave the sport never knowing they can continue on in USMS...they simply fall thru the cracks in many cases and rediscover often in mid life....USA-S & NCAA needs to recognize that once these swimmers leave their organizations they become the parents that bring kids back into the sport...coordinate better and maybe we see more pools being built rather than closed, more colleges offering swimming programs than dropping them and masters clubs doubling and tripling their members.