The anti-sandbag law:
"if a swimmer enters an event with a time significantly slower or faster than that swimmer's recorded time in the past two years, the meet director may, after a discussion with the swimmer, change the seeded time to a realistic time" (104.5.5.A(10)).
Concerning my Auburn nationals entry, I confess, when faced with a 7 hour 2 stop flight and 3:45 nonstop at an earlier time, I did what any warm-blooded middle-aged American swimmer with low self-esteem would do--sandbag my entry so I could catch the earlier flight, thus diminishing the possible time spent sitting next to a 400 pound Alabama slammer with sleep apnea wearing nothing but overalls and body odor. Of course, I was caught in my bold fabrication and my time was "fixed."
USMS seems to have an identity problem. Are we hard core with rigid qualifying times? It would seem not as 2 of my not-so-speedy family members were allowed to swim four events last year in Puerto Rico. If we are not hard core, why does anybody care that I sandbag? More to the point, why can one person enter a crappy time and another cannot? Just wondering.:)
Perhaps. But there seems to be some inconsistency in previously claiming that the effects of sandbagging are "small but not zero" and now saying that there is an actual "victim." Call me crazy and selfish, but victim does not seem to be the right word here.
I am not claiming anything in that post about how *I* view it, just how I think most sandbaggers view it or justify the practice. "Victimless crime" seems a pretty standard phrase and rolls off the tongue more easily than "victimless violation of the rules of competition."
Perhaps. But there seems to be some inconsistency in previously claiming that the effects of sandbagging are "small but not zero" and now saying that there is an actual "victim." Call me crazy and selfish, but victim does not seem to be the right word here.
I am not claiming anything in that post about how *I* view it, just how I think most sandbaggers view it or justify the practice. "Victimless crime" seems a pretty standard phrase and rolls off the tongue more easily than "victimless violation of the rules of competition."
