Open the Masters Records?

I think Great Bay Masters has a calculation that factors age into times: www.egswim.com/.../RatingTime.html I like keeping my comparisons local (to NEM) http://www.egswim.com/ne/. But at Worlds, it was exciting to swim in same heat as a former Olympic swimmer (can't remember who it was but she swam faster by about 2 minutes than her seed time). Most people on this bulletin board are as to me as Olympic swimmers are to you. I have my own goals, humble but satisfying. However, if I were an elite masters swimmer and suddenly found myself in a field of Olympic swimmers, even if they were swimming as USMS members, I'd feel a little cheated. Though at Harvard we had an Olympic triathlon dude swim the 50 free and it was very exciting to watch; he looked like a hovercraft. So I like the idea of being able to watch the Olympians close up (how cool could that be!), but feel for the elite masters who should not (IMHO) be comparing themselves to this group, and whose amazing times should not be bumped down as a result. As someone else posted, it confuses the whole idea of masters swimming, which is for regular people who love to swim and want to continue competing as adults, as opposed to professional swimmers who are in a league unto themselves. I would hate to see meets become intimidating for the slower swimmers, or for the older swimmers. It's very inspiring to see John Merrill (sp), age 94, I think, knock 2 minutes off his distance time from last year. Pretty darn cool. Right now masters meets are very open; if they opened in the fullest sense to the very fastest swimmers, this openness and awe of how swimming can aid longevity and connection to cool parts of life might get lost (racing at age 94 sure beats drooling over pudding in a nursing home). Though I do see that if someone joins masters and wants to race in masters meets, so they should. My memory from Worlds at Stanford is that someone beat Torres in one event. I may be wrong. The usual 3 a.m. incoherent thread....

I think Great Bay Masters has a calculation that factors age into times: www.egswim.com/.../RatingTime.html I like keeping my comparisons local (to NEM) http://www.egswim.com/ne/. But at Worlds, it was exciting to swim in same heat as a former Olympic swimmer (can't remember who it was but she swam faster by about 2 minutes than her seed time). Most people on this bulletin board are as to me as Olympic swimmers are to you. I have my own goals, humble but satisfying. However, if I were an elite masters swimmer and suddenly found myself in a field of Olympic swimmers, even if they were swimming as USMS members, I'd feel a little cheated. Though at Harvard we had an Olympic triathlon dude swim the 50 free and it was very exciting to watch; he looked like a hovercraft. So I like the idea of being able to watch the Olympians close up (how cool could that be!), but feel for the elite masters who should not (IMHO) be comparing themselves to this group, and whose amazing times should not be bumped down as a result. As someone else posted, it confuses the whole idea of masters swimming, which is for regular people who love to swim and want to continue competing as adults, as opposed to professional swimmers who are in a league unto themselves. I would hate to see meets become intimidating for the slower swimmers, or for the older swimmers. It's very inspiring to see John Merrill (sp), age 94, I think, knock 2 minutes off his distance time from last year. Pretty darn cool. Right now masters meets are very open; if they opened in the fullest sense to the very fastest swimmers, this openness and awe of how swimming can aid longevity and connection to cool parts of life might get lost (racing at age 94 sure beats drooling over pudding in a nursing home). Though I do see that if someone joins masters and wants to race in masters meets, so they should. My memory from Worlds at Stanford is that someone beat Torres in one event. I may be wrong. The usual 3 a.m. incoherent thread....