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?
Paul is right that pool meets happen all year while OW events generally only happen in the summer. So it's not surprising that there are more OW events than pool events when only looking at the summer season. Also, there are by far fewer LCM pools to hold meets at so it's not surprising that there are few LCM meets. If you are going to compare pool meets to OW events, I think you need to look at in on an full-year basis, and I bet that most Zones and LMSCs still have more pool meets during a year than OW events.
Also, the question fails to take account for how many people attend the average pool meet and how many attend the average OW event. I bet more people go to pool meets than OW events by a significant margin here in the Pacific Masters LMSC.
Finally, swim meets have multiple events, while there is usually 1-2 races at any OW event. A pool swimmer can do 5+races over a meet (more with relays). An OW swimmer needs 5 OW events to swim that many races....
OW swimming may be very popular among tris but I don't think that they go to many Masters sanctioned events (at least around here) due to the pesky requirement that they not wear wetsuits.
Paul is right that pool meets happen all year while OW events generally only happen in the summer. So it's not surprising that there are more OW events than pool events when only looking at the summer season. Also, there are by far fewer LCM pools to hold meets at so it's not surprising that there are few LCM meets. If you are going to compare pool meets to OW events, I think you need to look at in on an full-year basis, and I bet that most Zones and LMSCs still have more pool meets during a year than OW events.
Also, the question fails to take account for how many people attend the average pool meet and how many attend the average OW event. I bet more people go to pool meets than OW events by a significant margin here in the Pacific Masters LMSC.
Finally, swim meets have multiple events, while there is usually 1-2 races at any OW event. A pool swimmer can do 5+races over a meet (more with relays). An OW swimmer needs 5 OW events to swim that many races....
OW swimming may be very popular among tris but I don't think that they go to many Masters sanctioned events (at least around here) due to the pesky requirement that they not wear wetsuits.
