Okay, so this is a game I've played before, but not with swimmers. It was the major characters from the tv show LOST.
It's a very democratic game that centers around the giving and taking away of points.
For examples' sake, let's say we have five swimmers:
Dara Torres
Michael Phelps
Rowdy Gaines
Mark Spitz
Mary T. Meagher
Now, let's give each one 10 points.
Dara Torres - 10
Michael Phelps - 10
Rowdy Gaines - 10
Mark Spitz - 10
Mary T. Meagher - 10
Next, let's say a player has two points. He can give these two points to someone, he can take two points away from someone, or he can give one point to someone and take one point from someone else. Let's say this player wants to take away 2 points from Phelps:
Dara Torres - 10
Michael Phelps - 8
Rowdy Gaines - 10
Mark Spitz - 10
Mary T. Meagher - 10
Then let's say a bunch of players basically dogpile on Phelps. Eventually, Phelps gets down to this:
Dara Torres - 10
Michael Phelps - 0
Rowdy Gaines - 10
Mark Spitz - 10
Mary T. Meagher - 10
Once a swimmer gets down to zero, he's out! He can't come back into the Points Game until the next game starts (if that ever happens).
You can use any criteria you want for the giving or taking away of points. You can give or take based on simply liking a swimmer, or simply thinking he or she is the best of all time or better than others on the list, or whatever other criteria you want to use. But you have to play by the rules!
The winner is the last swimmer standing! (or is that swimming?)
Rules
1. After you give or take points, you may go again only after 4 other forum posters have taken their turn after you. Based on how active the game is, I may modify, with forewarning, this rule to 3 or 5 or other numbers if necessary.
2. You may add a swimmer to the list, but only if s/he has not already been in the game and eliminated. Adding a swimmer takes the place of playing points, so it's either/or, you can't do both in one turn. Once you have added a swimmer, you may not do so again until you have gone another 3 turns.
3. You may only use a total of 2 points in one turn, so you can use your points in one of 5 potential ways: 1.) +2 , 2.) -2 , 3.) +1 +1 , 4.) -1 -1 , 5.) or +1 -1 .
4. When you play points, please don't just repost the swimmer list with your change(s), but also say how you played your points at the bottom of your post. So, if you take 2 points from Dara Torres, change the swimmer list accordingly and post it anew, and then at the bottom, state, "-2 Dara."
5. Sometimes this game can get really hot and active, so I reserve the power, as game host, to PAUSE the game in the event that I feel the swimmer list is not accurately reflecting point changes. This usually happens because two or more players "stumble" over each other, posting and playing points at the same time. Once I have reviewed recent point-plays and made the sure the list is correct, I will RESUME the game.
6. Last but not least, you can't add anyone that posts here. Things would get nasty if points started getting subtracted from a fellow forumite.
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Sound good? Alright! Let's get started. We will begin with these ten swimmers:
Johnny Weissmuller - 10
Mark Spitz - 10
Matt Biondi - 10
Rowdy Gaines - 10
Michael Phelps - 10
Janet Evans - 10
Dara Torres - 10
Tracy Caulkins - 10
Natalie Coughlin - 10
Mary T. Meagher - 10
I will go first.
Johnny Weissmuller - 8
Mark Spitz - 10
Matt Biondi - 10
Rowdy Gaines - 10
Michael Phelps - 10
Janet Evans - 10
Dara Torres - 10
Tracy Caulkins - 10
Natalie Coughlin - 10
Mary T. Meagher - 10
-2 Johnny. Your vine's getting short, Tarzan!
Duke Kahanamoku - 12
Johnny Weissmuller - 22
Matt Biondi - 18
Rowdy Gaines - 12
Janet Evans - 20
Tracy Caulkins - 17
Natalie Coughlin - 29
Mary T. Meagher - 18
Vladimir Salnikov - 14
Alexander V. Popov - 15
Aaron Peirsol - 16
Grant Hackett - 12
Shirley Babashoff - 14
Don Schollander-10
David Wilkie - 3
Graham Smith - 6
+2 Shirley - Still have a crush even tho she crushed me!
Duke Kahanamoku - 12
Johnny Weissmuller - 21
Matt Biondi - 18
Rowdy Gaines - 11
Janet Evans - 21
Tracy Caulkins - 17
Natalie Coughlin - 29
Mary T. Meagher - 18
Vladimir Salnikov - 14
Alexander V. Popov - 14
Aaron Peirsol - 16
Grant Hackett - 12
Shirley Babashoff - 15
Don Schollander-10
Graham Smith - 6
Let's get rid of Natalie before we do something rash!
How many swimmers are also inventors of strokes? Or at least keen analysts/writers of same?
Check this out. Johnny Weismuller wrote the at-the-time definitive text, The American Crawl.
The youtube movie isn't great, focus wise, but you can see in one of the shots that he was an early pioneer of the high elbow catch.
YouTube - ‪Rare Book: Swimming The American Crawl‬
He was also a believer in the body suit!
YouTube - ‪Borg and Weissmuller‬
Duke Kahanamoku - 12
Johnny Weissmuller - 21
Matt Biondi - 16
Rowdy Gaines - 11
Janet Evans - 21
Tracy Caulkins - 17
Natalie Coughlin - 31
Mary T. Meagher - 18
Vladimir Salnikov - 14
Alexander V. Popov - 14
Aaron Peirsol - 16
Grant Hackett - 12
Shirley Babashoff - 15
Don Schollander-10
Graham Smith - 6
+2 Natalie
Jim, I hope your rash clears up
Johnny Weissmuller (born Johann Peter Weißmüller; June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was an Austro-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven world records.
Natalie Anne Coughlin (born August 23, 1982) is an American swimmer and eleven-time Olympic medallist.
At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Coughlin became the first American female athlete in modern Olympic history to win six medals in one Olympics and the first woman ever to win a 100 m backstroke gold in two consecutive Olympics.
Coughlin's success have earned her the World Swimmer of the Year Award one time and American Swimmer of the Year Award three times. She has won a total of forty-six medals in major international competition, twenty gold, sixteen silver, and ten bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships.
Both are good, but Johnny set 67 world records and Natalie 4.
So Johnny is 16.75 times better than Natalie, assuming that men's and women's world records are equally easy to set, which some (though not this coward here!) would argue is not really the case, given the fact that historically there have been a lot more men than women competing in sports in general.