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.:)
I think our time is better spent trying to find solutions. Here are two of my ideas:
1. Free-for-all events. Enter whatever time you want and swim whatever race you want. Random seeding.
2. Guest Olympic ringers. If someone is identified as a sandbagger in advance, s/he is not notified, nor is the time changed. Instead, the ringers will replace the swimmers on both sides of the sandbagger and swim sprint freestyle. Guest ringers include Roland Schoeman and Alain Bernard.
I think our time is better spent trying to find solutions. Here are two of my ideas:
1. Free-for-all events. Enter whatever time you want and swim whatever race you want. Random seeding.
2. Guest Olympic ringers. If someone is identified as a sandbagger in advance, s/he is not notified, nor is the time changed. Instead, the ringers will replace the swimmers on both sides of the sandbagger and swim sprint freestyle. Guest ringers include Roland Schoeman and Alain Bernard.
