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Hello Dolphins! It is Saturday,
09/19/09 and I am stuck for several hours in Chicago’s
O’Hare Airport waiting for my flight into Long Beach so I can
see Kelsey off to UC Irvine tomorrow morning. I have been at the
USA Swimming Convention for the past several days with the CCS
delegation.
There are
lots of things that effect all of us in the USA Swimming world at
Convention each year, from national rules, to the planning of
regional meets which will directly affect many of you as athletes
and parents. Mr. Chuck Wielgus, CEO of USA Swimming, Inc. gave a
state of the sport address at the House of Delegates meeting this
morning that I wish our whole team could have seen and heard. It is
an opportunity to really focus on the big picture and learn what is
going on from local grassroots programs like ours, to the national
and international scene.
Here are
some interesting things you might be interested
in:
- USA Swimming will conform to the
new FINA suit rules as of October 1, 2009. Specifically, the high
tech suits that have been worn for the last several years are
banned. Men may wear suits that do not extend upward beyond the
navel, or downward beyond the knee (jammers). Women’s suits
may not extend beyond the shoulders or cover the neck and may not
extend below the knee. Competitors may not wear more than one suit
and it must be made of textile (woven or braided natural or
synthetic, but not rubberized) material. This is a major change
that will level the playing field for all and get us back to where
we are not enhancing performance with suits by providing artificial
floatation or body compression.
- The short course Sectionals will
be held in Long Beach from December 18-22, 2009 at Belmont Plaza. I
have reserved rooms for our team at the Courtyard Marriott in Seal
Beach at a favorable rate for that area.
- Summer Sectionals in 2010 are in
Santa Clarita near Magic Mountain.
- The regular Western Zone Age
Group Championship meet in 2010 is in San Jose. There will also be
a senior Western Zone Meet next August 6-9, 2010 that will be held
at Clovis North. Cuts for this meet will be 15-16 AA times. It will
be the major championship meet for our senior swimmers who are not
Sectional or Junior/Senior National Qualifiers. The Age Group
Western Zone Championships in 2011 will be at Clovis North. The
senior meet in 2011 has yet to be decided.
- The Pan American Games will be
held in Irvine in the summer of 2010. I hope we can get a team trip
together and go down to watch this major international meet in
Irvine.
- October 2, 2009 is the day the
International Olympic Committee will announce the winning bid for
the 2016 Olympic Games. Chicago is the USA city being considered.
They have gone all out to try to get the games to come here and I
hope it works out for them. There are other major cities being
considered, but I believe Rio de Janiero is the most serious
contender other than Chicago.
- USA Swimming had its largest
increase in membership ever in 2009 at 11%.
- Connoco-Phillips Performance of
the Year was awarded to Michael Phelps for his 100 fly (49.5) at
the Rome World Championships.
- USA Swimming’s Make a
Splash Program has taught 160,000 at risk kids how to swim this
past year.
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