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?
Parents
Former Member
That's a really good idea. Can you imagine the collective tri freak-out if a few swimmers did the tri and then turned around and did an OW only event afterwards? They'd all get antsy and have to go do a century just to prove their worthiness.
I did this a couple of years ago at Smith Mountain Lake (Virginia). I did an Oly tri in the morning, then in the same lake, did a 5K swim that afternoon. It wasn't as fun as it sounds.
That's a really good idea. Can you imagine the collective tri freak-out if a few swimmers did the tri and then turned around and did an OW only event afterwards? They'd all get antsy and have to go do a century just to prove their worthiness.
I did this a couple of years ago at Smith Mountain Lake (Virginia). I did an Oly tri in the morning, then in the same lake, did a 5K swim that afternoon. It wasn't as fun as it sounds.
