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?
Assuming Rob is correct that that information isn't on the USMS Calendar of Events: why would the meet directors of all those LCM meets neglect to put their information on the national calendar? Maybe OW race directors are just better at publicizing their events.
Again, not true. I was the Meet Director of the Dearborn LCM meet and that meet was up on the Calendar of Events for for 6 weeks. I know both the Anderson Y meet and the Southern Illinois meet was there also. Unfortunately, they take the events off as soon as they are finished or they would still be there now.
I know in some cases, Meet Directors post to there Local LMSC sites and do not bother with the Calendar of Events. I think the thinking is they will have more swimmers locally and don't bother with filling out the necessary information to get the meet flyer posted on the site.
Our Michigan LMSC as well as all other LMSC's in the Great Lakes Zone do not have as many Long Course meets as Short Course meets because of mainly 5 things.
1. Attendance is usually significantly lower than Short Course season meets. 2. Pool Availability. 3. Long Course Meets are in competition for other events like Open Water swims and Triathlons that don't happen in the Fall/Winter months. 4. Shorter summer season with the weather makes meet scheduling harder with Park, Club, and School Pool facilities. 5. Getting Volunteers/Teams/LMSC to run a summer meet.
Attendance is a real key because swimmers just don't turn up for summer meets leaving the host in a questionable revenue position. Also getting more than just a few groups to run Zone Championships. If you only have a few facilities or personal to run a meet and it can't happen for one of reasons above and no one steps up to run a meet then it does not happen.
Assuming Rob is correct that that information isn't on the USMS Calendar of Events: why would the meet directors of all those LCM meets neglect to put their information on the national calendar? Maybe OW race directors are just better at publicizing their events.
Again, not true. I was the Meet Director of the Dearborn LCM meet and that meet was up on the Calendar of Events for for 6 weeks. I know both the Anderson Y meet and the Southern Illinois meet was there also. Unfortunately, they take the events off as soon as they are finished or they would still be there now.
I know in some cases, Meet Directors post to there Local LMSC sites and do not bother with the Calendar of Events. I think the thinking is they will have more swimmers locally and don't bother with filling out the necessary information to get the meet flyer posted on the site.
Our Michigan LMSC as well as all other LMSC's in the Great Lakes Zone do not have as many Long Course meets as Short Course meets because of mainly 5 things.
1. Attendance is usually significantly lower than Short Course season meets. 2. Pool Availability. 3. Long Course Meets are in competition for other events like Open Water swims and Triathlons that don't happen in the Fall/Winter months. 4. Shorter summer season with the weather makes meet scheduling harder with Park, Club, and School Pool facilities. 5. Getting Volunteers/Teams/LMSC to run a summer meet.
Attendance is a real key because swimmers just don't turn up for summer meets leaving the host in a questionable revenue position. Also getting more than just a few groups to run Zone Championships. If you only have a few facilities or personal to run a meet and it can't happen for one of reasons above and no one steps up to run a meet then it does not happen.
