I have a theory that Masters has more males than females is because high school and college programs in the past spent their time on male swimmers. I remember my high school having only distances like 25 yard butterfly and the 50's of the other strokes and only the 100 for freestyle and IM. This was up to my sophmore year. And at the Jr year, the girls finally had 200 yard Im and 500 yard freestyle and the 100's of the other strokes like the boys. Also, I remember that the community college workout for women was a lot less yardage than that for guys. The California community college had the 100 and 50 distances for women and the 100 and 200 yard distances for men. The women did vote to keep the sprints and California community college is the only college system with the 50 sprints for other strokes besides freestyle. Anyways, college scohlorships for women came available starting mainly with the 1970's in swimming. Now at the age group level for USA Swimming girls outnumber boys. So in the future masters swimming will probably end up with more women.
Former Member
Sorry, about that MS Meg Smath. I should not have talk about my salary and you are right it doesn't belong here. And as Emmet and you mention there are over 40,000 people that swim masters and many of them do it for exercise and didn't swim on teams as kids or teenagers or early 20's.
You are telling me that all the women in the 45 to 49 age group that swam a 50 meter breastroke didn't swim as teenagers. Melinda Mann does a 37 for a 50 meter breastroke and and a 1:21 for a 100 meter breastroke and a 3:02 for a 200 meter breastroke. Times you do unless you were near nationals back in the 1970's. Meg wants to believe the 80 percent of master swimmers under 50 years old didn't swim as kids. Look at the top times for the different age groups, particulary the men's 40 to 45 age group,even Matt S can't break in the top 25 times.Just because in Kentucky most master swimmers didn't swim as kids doesn't mean this is true in other states. If she looks at the state records for my state Arizona,and some of the times very few of them are beginning times of people that started to swim past 40 years old. Yes, California and most states had a double standard for high school swimming back in the 1970s. The guys had regular swimming events and the girls did had distances similar to 7 and 8 year olds. Title 9 changed this in the mid-1970's. And its true that there is more single parent women. But age group swimming has more female swimmers and less male swimmers. Master swimming doesn't discrimnate against women but the old swimming system did in the past. And why attack me all the time.
Who cares if they started as children or adults. There probably is a difference between those that just swim for exercise and those that compete in the meets, I didn't explain the difference between them. And just because you are not a single parent doesn't mean that life can not be hard. I make one of the lowest incomes of the people that write on this board under 30,000 a year. I had it hard since entering school because as a child I was considered stupid since I learn to write and read later. And I was one of the first group of children with the ADD label.
Being a younger swimmer, 21 years old, I am what you may be refering to. I did not swim at a child. In fact I didn't learn to swim till I was 18, and I did then because I had a job that depended on it. I was never encouraged to do sports and I came after title 9. I am so grateful for masters swimming that I may have a scond chance. I have goals now, including attending the SC Championships in 2004. Coaching my age group and masters team supports the notion mentioned. My age groups is finally half and half, after two years. We have only had a fourth of the team boys (or less) since I took over. My masters team however has more men than women. My age-group team...I am extremly excited everytime I see a boy join. This is hard to come by I have found. My masters...bring on whoever...as long as they have the ability to survive in the pool. Anyone is welcome...it just keeps it more interesting. ;) Masters is about what the swimmer wants out of it...weather that be an international meet or the ability to swim a mile. It's a GREAT organization that I fully support and pass along the information to any swimmer interested.
