I'm not in a position to change anything. I'm just telling you how it is.
However, I'm not sure that rotating sessions is any "fairer," given that everyone focuses on different events that sit at different times in the schedule anyway.
it is profoundly unfair. please rise above bureaucracy and change the policy to help people who train their asses off all year in order to compete in the national championships. I want this changed for SC and LC championships.
I presume you are in a position to open the discussion which I am trying to do on this forum.
the reason USMS has not received more blowback on this issue from seniors is that your poor decision is buried in the fine print. what is unfair is having one group warm up at the earliest slot every single day regardless of which event they are focusing on. the burden of the early start should be evenly shared by all age groups, even if your personal opinion is that this is not unfair.
I predict that some seniors who have already sent in their entry fees will not attend when they learn of this.
and others will be less inclined to attend when this news is more widely distributed.
the objective is not just hosting a nationals post covid. the objective is hosting a nationals that is fair to all participants.
jeff
it is profoundly unfair. please rise above bureaucracy and change the policy to help people who train their asses off all year in order to compete in the national championships. I want this changed for SC and LC championships.
I was going to just be blunt about it and say life is not always fair and it sometimes comes down to choices, you can choose to go or not. It is your choice. But I won't be blunt, at least not this time.
As Jeff Enge points out, there is a HUGE (!) amount of work that goes into setting up and executing a pool national meet, even in normal times. Due to the pandemic, the two meets for this year took an inordinate amount of time and effort from the host, BOD, national office staff, rules and championship committee members to put together. Our first goal was just to get to a point where it appeared that if we put in the work, we could pull the two meets together so USMS members would have an opportunity to race again. We bagged that goal.
Will it/they be ideal? Nope, can't say with any certainty that they will be, and from some commentary, definitely not, but you will be given an opportunity to participate, if you choose to do so.
As far as swimming early, I don't know, maybe it's just me but I have to cross two time zones to get there (used to be three) but like going to Maryland, Ft Lauderdale, Coral Springs... I go to swim and if early it is, so be it. I can take a nap if it's that debilitating.
I would definitely plan on older age groups going first - as is written in the rules - hope to see you there.
Jim Clemmons
Chair, Championship Committee
PS: how do you think Caleb Dressel and Michael Andrew, et al, feel about morning finals in Tokyo???
The other downside to "Sessions" is that we will be swimming all our events close together, not spread out among all age groups. Three events in two hours early in the morning is no fun.
In a different thread it was suggested that with significantly less entries than the cap, there would only be 2 sessions each day now... So that's a bit better with the spacing.
I definitely paid attention to when events were swum when I was signing up in the first place just because I didn't want to do back-to-backs for that reason. But I enjoy racing pretty much any event besides distance so that helps somewhat.
