World Swimming Association?

ASCA unanimously approved a resolution objecting to FINA's improv rulemaking around the zipper/open water screwup among other things. Here's a news link: www.swimnews.com/.../8052 Interesting how the FINA open water committee person commenting above expressed how extremely grateful he is to FINA. I have always been grateful to all governing bodies, race directors and local organizations that have sponsored and supported open water swimming. I have volunteered for decades in a variety of capacities, both domestically and internationally, and know that the support of FINA, race directors and local organizations is vital to the health and growth of our sport. In particular, I am very grateful for FINA's support of the 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup circuit, the Open Water Swimming Grand Prix circuit, the 5K, 5K Team Pursuit, 10K and 25 races at the World Swimming Championships, and especially, the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim. Without the executives and volunteers pushing for open water swimming at these levels, I believe that our sport - at least at the elite end of the open water swimming spectrum - would be less global or lower profiled. If you are interested, I can explain to you off-line how a person (like me) is selected to become a volunteer of FINA and given the opportunity to spend hundreds of hours trying to help our sport become better. I can be emailed at headcoach@10Kswim.com and we can take it from there at your convenience. Before I was selected to be a member of FINA's Technical Open Water Swimming Committee, I had no idea of the structure within FINA or procedures that are used, so I am happy to share the information that I now know with others who are interested. There is nothing to hide and, while others may not agree, there are a lot of volunteers out there working with FINA trying to help organize open water swims that are safe, competitive and memorable for all involved.

ASCA unanimously approved a resolution objecting to FINA's improv rulemaking around the zipper/open water screwup among other things. Here's a news link: www.swimnews.com/.../8052 Interesting how the FINA open water committee person commenting above expressed how extremely grateful he is to FINA. I have always been grateful to all governing bodies, race directors and local organizations that have sponsored and supported open water swimming. I have volunteered for decades in a variety of capacities, both domestically and internationally, and know that the support of FINA, race directors and local organizations is vital to the health and growth of our sport. In particular, I am very grateful for FINA's support of the 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup circuit, the Open Water Swimming Grand Prix circuit, the 5K, 5K Team Pursuit, 10K and 25 races at the World Swimming Championships, and especially, the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim. Without the executives and volunteers pushing for open water swimming at these levels, I believe that our sport - at least at the elite end of the open water swimming spectrum - would be less global or lower profiled. If you are interested, I can explain to you off-line how a person (like me) is selected to become a volunteer of FINA and given the opportunity to spend hundreds of hours trying to help our sport become better. I can be emailed at headcoach@10Kswim.com and we can take it from there at your convenience. Before I was selected to be a member of FINA's Technical Open Water Swimming Committee, I had no idea of the structure within FINA or procedures that are used, so I am happy to share the information that I now know with others who are interested. There is nothing to hide and, while others may not agree, there are a lot of volunteers out there working with FINA trying to help organize open water swims that are safe, competitive and memorable for all involved.