Are Open Water events more popular than Pool events?

It was online and took something like 1 minute. Chris is fast at everything!

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 In the Great Lakes Zone, there are ZERO pool meets (not counting LCM Nationals in Indy) and seven open water events. This statement is completely false and there have been several LCM pool meets and I have been or ran at least 4 of these meets. In June, Cleveland State University hosted a 2 day LCM meet. Swim Louisville hosted a one day LCM meet in mid June. Park Ridge hosted a meet in June. Michigan State University hosted a meet in the last weekend of June. Anderson Y of Cincinnati hosted a meet on July 4, 2009. Dearborn, MI hosted a meet July 12, 2009. Southern Illinois University hosted a meet in July. This weekend the Lakeside Club in Louisville, KY is hosting a 2 day meet. That is a total of 8 LCM meets excluding USMS Nationals. I think you should check LMSC websites before making inaccurate and untrue statements about LCM meets.

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? Maybe but check back in December and I'm quite sure there will be no open water events listed for the Colonies :D

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 then not wear wetsuits. though tri's may be well represented at open water swims, the percentage of tri's that will actually compete in a swim only event is pretty small. i think there is opportunity to combine triathlons and swim events.... the effort to set up a course with buoys, timing, support and safety etc is not a small one and there would be economy in joining forces.

That is a total of 8 LCM meets excluding USMS Nationals. I think you should check LMSC websites before making inaccurate and untrue statements about LCM meets. 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.

Why would the meet directors of all those LCM meets neglect to put their information on the national calendar? I'd really like to know the answer to this one. I do know this is true as I've had to search LMSC websites (which are not always intuitive to find or navigate) to find meets to travel to that didn't appear on the USMS website. I generally have a limited number of weekends when I can get a meet in, but am willing to travel to do so. It would be nice if all USMS sanctioned meets across the country were listed on the USMS calendar events, both pool and OW.

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.

My apologies, Frank. I was just going off the current USMS Calendar, making an observation, and asking a simple question.

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. Doesn't even sound fun. Well, the tri part, at least. :afraid:

I think there is opportunity to combine triathlons and swim events.... the effort to set up a course with buoys, timing, support and safety etc is not a small one and there would be economy in joining forces. 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.