Pensacola 3 mile bridge swim/Pensacola Bay Swim

Rob’s comments are not from a “holier than though” perspective. It is from a legal perspective. The Amateur Sports Act gave the USOC and the various NGBs the exclusive right to sanction events in their sports with a few exceptions (the NCAA, for example.) USAT has the right to sanction triathlons. Open water swimming is the prevue of USA Swimming and by assignment USMS for the older age groups. If it is a training exersize, then there should be no results published. Leo Leo: There are many exceptions besides the NCAA. YMCA, Senior Games, and the National High School Federation are others. Now if what your saying above is true then there are a lot of Open Water Swims conducted in this country in violation. For instance I will provide a link to one of the oldest Open Water Swims in the country that has never ever been sanctioned by either USA Swimming or USMS and that is the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim. Also any swims that are sanctioned by the World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation do not need sanctions from USA or USMS. Here is a link and a history of results of one of the oldest open water swims in the country. www.bayswim.com/history.html The point I am trying to make is that there are hundreds of open water swims around the country that are not sanctioned and the host and sponsors can run them without following any sanction guidelines. I am not sure of the legality of USAT sanctioning an Open Water event separately, but others have ran Open Water Swims independent of USA and USMS for many years. Granted none of this counts for either organization objectives, but I believe no one organization has authority to stop another from running an Open Water swim. In 1963, FINA did not object to the forming of the World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation because there was a lot of dissension between amateur and professional swimmers. FINA had no events like todays World Cup races and future Olympic events and so basically the World Professional Marathon Federation sanctioned professional marathons annually around the World. Today with everything being professional it gets a little tricky about what WPMSF can do and what it cannot do. I remember the pro cuits from 1973 to 1979 when John Kinsella dominated them. Another swimmer who used to be a USMS swimmer and got into the WPMF because of the 1980 Olympic boycott was Paul Asmuth and I remember him saying that he liked the organization objectives and vison because the parameters were different than that of USA Swimming. The circuit was always in rough choppy water, the range in distance was 15 to 28 miles, and the water temperature was usually no higher than 63 degrees. Also the circuit was punishing because there was only a week between each event and no one really ever recovered fully from one race to the next. If you skipped races you would lose points. So by the end of the summer you have nothing to draw on and be taped out completely.

Rob’s comments are not from a “holier than though” perspective. It is from a legal perspective. The Amateur Sports Act gave the USOC and the various NGBs the exclusive right to sanction events in their sports with a few exceptions (the NCAA, for example.) USAT has the right to sanction triathlons. Open water swimming is the prevue of USA Swimming and by assignment USMS for the older age groups. If it is a training exersize, then there should be no results published. Leo Leo: There are many exceptions besides the NCAA. YMCA, Senior Games, and the National High School Federation are others. Now if what your saying above is true then there are a lot of Open Water Swims conducted in this country in violation. For instance I will provide a link to one of the oldest Open Water Swims in the country that has never ever been sanctioned by either USA Swimming or USMS and that is the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim. Also any swims that are sanctioned by the World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation do not need sanctions from USA or USMS. Here is a link and a history of results of one of the oldest open water swims in the country. www.bayswim.com/history.html The point I am trying to make is that there are hundreds of open water swims around the country that are not sanctioned and the host and sponsors can run them without following any sanction guidelines. I am not sure of the legality of USAT sanctioning an Open Water event separately, but others have ran Open Water Swims independent of USA and USMS for many years. Granted none of this counts for either organization objectives, but I believe no one organization has authority to stop another from running an Open Water swim. In 1963, FINA did not object to the forming of the World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation because there was a lot of dissension between amateur and professional swimmers. FINA had no events like todays World Cup races and future Olympic events and so basically the World Professional Marathon Federation sanctioned professional marathons annually around the World. Today with everything being professional it gets a little tricky about what WPMSF can do and what it cannot do. I remember the pro cuits from 1973 to 1979 when John Kinsella dominated them. Another swimmer who used to be a USMS swimmer and got into the WPMF because of the 1980 Olympic boycott was Paul Asmuth and I remember him saying that he liked the organization objectives and vison because the parameters were different than that of USA Swimming. The circuit was always in rough choppy water, the range in distance was 15 to 28 miles, and the water temperature was usually no higher than 63 degrees. Also the circuit was punishing because there was only a week between each event and no one really ever recovered fully from one race to the next. If you skipped races you would lose points. So by the end of the summer you have nothing to draw on and be taped out completely.