Should USMS be called USMS?

This is probably unrealistic, but perhaps USMS should officially fuse with USA Swimming so that swimming in our country just has one umbrella organization with age groups starting at 6 and under and going to the current 100-104 (and perhaps someday soon, 105-109)? There would be no distinctions made between youth swimmers, college swimmers, elite post college swimmers, early adult swimmers, middle adult swimmers, geriatric swimmers, etc. -- just one continuous sport that accepts swimmers in their childhoods and continues to provide a place to compete until the End? I think this would encourage a lot of swimmers post high school (who either can't swim in college or don't want to) to stick with the sport. The only folks that would be "hurt" by this, I suspect, would be masters world record holders in some of the young adult age groups. Many of the world records here would be supplanted by Phelps, Ledecky, Dressel, etc. But when you think about it, how much pleasure can one take in holding a Masters World Record while knowing someone the same age has killed your time but that it doesn't count because it wasn't swum at an official masters meet? Example: the masters WR in the 18 - 24 age group for the 50 free is 50 Free Josh Schneider 04-28-12 19.36 Josh would clearly lose this to Dressel (not to mention innumerable other 20-something sprinters). Not till around age 40 or 45, I suspect, would the current masters world records stand up against that actual world records, but after that, I don't think it would be much of a problem. Dara Torres set the Masters WR for that 50 LCM free Dara G Torres 07-06-08 24.25 That same year, in the Olympics, she set the American record at 24.07. This probably represents the smallest gap between a Masters WR and a non-Masters American record. Dara was 42 during that Olympics.

This is probably unrealistic, but perhaps USMS should officially fuse with USA Swimming so that swimming in our country just has one umbrella organization with age groups starting at 6 and under and going to the current 100-104 (and perhaps someday soon, 105-109)? There would be no distinctions made between youth swimmers, college swimmers, elite post college swimmers, early adult swimmers, middle adult swimmers, geriatric swimmers, etc. -- just one continuous sport that accepts swimmers in their childhoods and continues to provide a place to compete until the End? I think this would encourage a lot of swimmers post high school (who either can't swim in college or don't want to) to stick with the sport. The only folks that would be "hurt" by this, I suspect, would be masters world record holders in some of the young adult age groups. Many of the world records here would be supplanted by Phelps, Ledecky, Dressel, etc. But when you think about it, how much pleasure can one take in holding a Masters World Record while knowing someone the same age has killed your time but that it doesn't count because it wasn't swum at an official masters meet? Example: the masters WR in the 18 - 24 age group for the 50 free is 50 Free Josh Schneider 04-28-12 19.36 Josh would clearly lose this to Dressel (not to mention innumerable other 20-something sprinters). Not till around age 40 or 45, I suspect, would the current masters world records stand up against that actual world records, but after that, I don't think it would be much of a problem. Dara Torres set the Masters WR for that 50 LCM free Dara G Torres 07-06-08 24.25 That same year, in the Olympics, she set the American record at 24.07. This probably represents the smallest gap between a Masters WR and a non-Masters American record. Dara was 42 during that Olympics.