Are Open Water events more popular than Pool events?
Former Member
It’s undeniable that the popularity of open water swimming has risen dramatically in the last few years. But when looking for a LCM meet to swim in, I saw an interesting trend on the USMS Calendar.
www.usms.org/.../calendar.php
Here in the Colonies Zone, there are three pool meets listed (two were last weekend and the other is in October) and TEN open water events. In the Great Lakes Zone, there are ZERO pool meets (not counting LCM Nationals in Indy) and seven open water events. These kinds of numbers are similar in virtually all the Zones.
Has open water swimming officially passed pool swimming in popularity?
Based on the amount of LCM meets the Dixie Zone had within driving distance of me I said "screw it" and did nothing BUT OW events this summer. The LCM season for Master's is almost nonexistent here it would seem. So I'm not gonna waste my time on it. I like the OW events better anyway and it gets you into the "great outdoors".
That is why I did age group meets. You can get good competition without having to drive two hours or more to get to. We had one local LCM Masters meet but the pool is pretty bad for competition. It is fine for training because it is LCM.
Based on the amount of LCM meets the Dixie Zone had within driving distance of me I said "screw it" and did nothing BUT OW events this summer. The LCM season for Master's is almost nonexistent here it would seem. So I'm not gonna waste my time on it. I like the OW events better anyway and it gets you into the "great outdoors".
That is why I did age group meets. You can get good competition without having to drive two hours or more to get to. We had one local LCM Masters meet but the pool is pretty bad for competition. It is fine for training because it is LCM.
