For your information (inside joke), our Team USA men's 400 medley relay prelim squad - a.k.a. the "B" team - went 3:32.42.
Plummer (:53.97), Shanteau (1:00.13), McGill (:51.00), and Weber-Gale (:47.32) didn't push the starts, either.
That was only 0.36 behind what the "A" team of Thoman (:53.61), Gangloff (1:00.24), Phelps (:50.57), and Adrian (:47.64) went to secure the gold medal in the meet's final event.
There's a new distance king and his name is Sun Yang. China's Sun broke Grant Hackett's 1500 LCM world record in Shanghai on the final day of World Champs. Read more at Swimming Worldhere.
Sounds like a pretty good kid:
"I was not obsessed with the world record before the final," Sun said. "I just wanted to focus on my plan. My goal was to win gold. I'm so grateful to the whole Chinese team, including my coach and parents. I think the world record belongs to all of them."
Sun was 2+ seconds behind WR pace with a hundred to go. Watch him run down that red line in this condensed video:
After a couple of anonymous comments on Go for the Gold!*, it finally hit me. Former Navy Seal Mike Oyer is also former Geneva HS/Seneca Lake Swim Club (N.Y.) swimmer Mike Oyer.
Mike is battling A.L.S. (Lou Gehrig's Disease).
Rum & Coke? I remember it being screwdrivers!
I was lucky to swim with guys like Mike, Bobby Beaudry, and Allan Carle on Hobart College head coach Bob Beaudry's Seneca Lake Swim Club back in the 70's. That was just about the most fun-loving crew I've ever been around. We took some memorable trips to Watertown and Clayton for their summer Can-Am meets.
Time to take on the Title IX Blog. Open debate? Exchange of ideas? Nope, it's not there! Read about it here.
When anyone asks me what our adversaries are like in the Title IX reform debate, I always tell them to take a close look at the Title IX Blog. The critical difference there: the authors don't allow any outsiders to leave comments on their blog posts. It's almost as if they're afraid of free and open debate about the law and the damage it's doing at colleges and high schools around the country.
Another site that's spouting misinformation is Chicago's Fair Shot. Seems these sites aren't afraid to show how out of touch their writers truly are. Title IX reformers are for equal opportunities for all.
Swimming is a shining example of gender equity, right?
Title IX has worked not only to protect female students but males as well. The law helps to demonstrate that America is committed to seeking equality in education.
How about it, guys? Did the Kutztown men's swimmers benefit from all that Title IX protection?
Lawyers keep pushing gender quotas as a measure of Title IX compliance. They push proportionality, even though they're well aware that it's a flawed, unfair concept.
It's all about time for us, right? Start workout on time, get your time, leave on time, swim a best time, etc. Check out the trailer for In Time here. It's due out in late October.
The Ivy League will try to reduce concussions this year by limiting full-contact in football practices. Read more here.
Fitter and Faster - featuring Lacey Nymeyer and Peter Vanderkaay - is coming to North Texas. Info on the October 1 clinic at Southlake Carroll is here. Early athlete registration is just $55. Coaches and parents attend for free.
What's Aaron Peirsol been up to? Swimming World interview from Shanghai:
Times Higher Education has an annual "exam howlers" contest. Winners are to be announced next week. Read more here.
But after reading the statement that "American power is based on superheroes", Jason Dittmer, lecturer in human geography at University College London, lamented: "I clearly need to teach this material better."
"The chairman said that this was the most exciting proposal that has come before the committee all year," Clemmons said. "They like the idea that you get kids off the couch with a unique sport."
Two committee members voted against the proposal while 10 abstained, asking the applicants to come back with a list of 150 to 200 schools interested in forming teams, Polaski said.
Oh, right. Sounds like a slam dunk...
Thanks, SZ!
From the "Anything's Possible" file: The UIL has announced that Texas A&M will host the 2011 Team Tennis state championships. Read more here.
Joseph Stanton's therapy now includes an occasional dip in the pool. Read Terri's posts about that and more at Joseph's Caring Bridge Journal.
Nitro swam away with another TAGS championship. Results are here.
Instead of headlines like "Three-Headed Alien Escapes Area 51 Using Cold Fusion-Powered Jetpack", it's "A Young Athlete's Testicles Bleed After Being Hit By A "Good Ol' Boy" Coach With A Rolled Up Towel!".
Sensational, but true!
Since it's not available at your grocery checkout stand, you'll have to read it here.
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crises, maintain their neutrality. Durante degli Alighieri, a.k.a. Dante
After observing children on playgrounds in Norway, England and Australia, Dr. Sandseter identified six categories of risky play: exploring heights, experiencing high speed, handling dangerous tools, being near dangerous elements (like water or fire), rough-and-tumble play (like wrestling), and wandering alone away from adult supervision. The most common is climbing heights.
New pools built without diving boards. Existing pools taking out diving boards. Easy to make the connection, right? Thanks for nothing, insurance companies...
Very, very big news on the Title IX front. The College Sports Council is going to bat for high school boys' sports. They are changing their name to the American Sports Council. Official site is here.
According to the NWLC website, the complaints are part of its new campaign, “Rally for Girls’ Sports: She’ll Win More than a Game,” to educate schools, the public and parents about the “widespread inequities their daughters face in school sports programs, and to mobilize parents to press for change.”
The NWLC preceded complaints with the OCR in recent months from an anonymous source, alleging discrimination by dozens of school districts in the states of Oregon and Washington. Similar actions have been taken in other states as well.
“When we saw the NWLC complaint (against the 12 school districts), we knew there would be a tidal wave of complaints that will overwhelm schools across the country,” Pearson said.
As organizations like the Women's Sports Foundation (WSF) and the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) make a strong push to bring proportionality to high school athletics, Eric McErlain and Co. realized that we need strong advocates to "push back".
WASHINGTON, D.C. – July 21, 2011 – The American Sports Council (ASC) filed suit against the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) today, alleging that the use of gender quotas to enforce Title IX in high school athletic programs is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection Clause. Attorneys at the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of the ASC. The suit is entitled, American Sports Council vs. Department of Education.
In recent months, quota activists have been intimidating high school districts with charges that they are in violation of Title IX simply on the basis of the gender balance in their athletic departments. “Not only is this interpretation not supported by law, it has the potential of destroying much of what is so good about the uniquely American athletic system — one that produces the world’s best scholar-athletes,” said ASC Chairman, Eric Pearson. “This pattern of legal intimidation needs to stop.”
Nationwide, there are currently 1.3 million more boys participating in high school sports than girls. Using a gender quota to enforce Title IX in high school sports would put those boys athletes at risk of losing their opportunity to play.
Don't say you weren't warned. Many of us have predicted that gender quotas could be imposed on high school athletic departments.
Gender Quotas + Budget Cuts + Title IX Lawyers = Fewer Male Opportunities
Okay, this will interest at least a few of you down in Austin. Your little fish is between prelims and finals. You've already gotten in your swim over at Deep Eddy. You'd like to relax, but all you can think of is what you must be missing out on in San Diego, right? Never fear! You can keep up with Comic-Con 2011here. Oh yeah, real time TAGS results are here.
The NCAA is changing to a no-recall false start rule. They will also allow the use of track-style starting blocks. Read more here.
Can't get enough NCAA news? New president Mark Emmert has invited a bunch of heavy hitters to an August retreat in Indy. The list is here. Good news: Nancy, Billie Jean, and Donna didn't get invites. Bad news: Neither did Bob Groseth...
Despite being home to more boys high school swimmers than any other state except California, Texas boasts relatively few men’s college programs making it one of the most under-served swimming communities in the nation. It’s a need that DBU, along with Incarnate Word University and UT-Permian Basin have recognized in recent years.
Let's give DBU Athletic Director Ryan Erwin a great big ATTAWAYTOGO!!!
At the Independent Women's Forum, Carrie Lukas responds to a New York Times story on Title IX issues in community colleges. Read it here.
If Title IX's logic is out-dated and unnecessary for four-year colleges, it is ridiculous when applied to community colleges. Yet according to this New York Times story, two-year colleges are next up for additional scrutiny for failing to comply with the Title IX quota system that rules the rest of academia.
If opportunities for women are available, but the interest isn't there, why should males suffer?
The New York Times published an article on gender inequities in JUCO athletics. Read it here.
Henry Washington has served as athletic director at Los Angeles Southwest College for 27 years, and each year, he said, women’s basketball faces the same challenge: the team starts out with a roster of 12 players only to dwindle to five or six by the end of the season.
“Sometimes they’re not motivated, they may have a child,” he said. “There are all kinds of obstacles that are getting in the way of trying to even keep teams.”
Brenda Pena, the softball coach, sent her assistant to Colorado in June to recruit at a tournament that drew more than 100 teams nationwide. Although her team finished last in its conference this year, she said, Pensacola has a reputation for fielding strong teams and for helping its students transfer to four-year colleges. As a result, Pena said, she is able to avoid the obstacle of attracting players from an older, less engaged student body by instead recruiting students straight from high school.
“We have plenty of people,” she said. “We have girls that are dying to play.”
Short video on 29 Ways to Stay Creative (via Laughing Squid):
USA Today listed the amount of subsidies at 219 Division I schools. View the list here.
The U.S. Department of Education can help you find schools with the cheapest (and most expensive) bottom line. Generate your own College Affordability report here.
ATEXPHOTO will be taking action shots at TAGS. Info is here.
Looking to fund an upstart? Looking for help with your new venture? Plenty of projects at KICKSTARTER.
View Team USA interviews (Phelps, Coughlin, Lochte, and Busch) at Swimming Worldhere.
Wendy Parker put together a great series of articles called Women's Sports Without Illusions. Start page is here, and includes links to all ten parts of the series.
What’ I’ve written here isn’t meant to be a raging polemic against the gender equity establishment, with which I do have some serious beefs, as you’ll see reading below. It’s about getting beyond what I regard as its small-minded obsessions that are more about past grievances than preparing for a different future for female athleticism.
I’m no great visionary; but then again, neither are the (mostly) women who have claimed that mantle. Their ideas are old, hackneyed and divisive. Their rhetoric often is hostile toward men and is marinated in pretentious, dreary academic Marxist/feminist theory. They come across as reasonable in interviews with the mainstream media, which doesn’t bother to find out how deeply out of touch they are. I’ve done that here.
Her thoughts on the Women's World Cup? Read them here.
It’s understandable that Title IX advocates are jumping on the U.S. women’s soccer team’s bandwagon as hard as they did 12 years ago. Then as now, American players roused their nation to care, at least for three weeks, about two things which were unlikely to gain mass attention, especially together: soccer and women’s sports.
Time to rebuild Minot's swimming program. Read more at USA Swimminghere. Longhorn Matt Lowe's parents were lucky - their printing company survived the flooding. Unfortunately, the long course pool is still unusable.
For now, Matt plans to get up to Minot as soon as he can. He is conjuring more ways to help from his location at the University of Texas, and doing everything that he can to help. Even if it’s simply raising a few dollars. The process has to start somewhere.
“We’ll likely lose (the 50m pool) and have to rebuild a new facility,” Matt says. “That may be a future project to help rebuild.”
Got an extra grand lying around? It'll get you a deck level seat at the 2012 Olympic Trials. Read more here. Better yet, coach a qualifier and use that money toward new rims...
Use Step Where? Routes for your walks, runs, bike rides, and even open water swims can be mapped out there. If you've ever gone for an open water swim and wondered how far you actually went, it's a great tool. Thanks for the heads up, DJA!
Garrett and Kathleen Hersey looked great in their swims before the trip. Check out Senior Circuit Champs results here.
While he didn't quite get the cuts he was hoping for, Bobby had some excellent swims. He's really committed to the sport. Not bad for a kid with just :27 seconds of TAGSexperience, right? Can't say enough about the team and coaches down there in Austin.
Got in a couple of swims at Deep Eddy last weekend. Cool, clear water was a very nice change. Never been? You don't know what you're missing! Check out a video here. Pic is an oldie via The Portal to Texas.
Back in the 80's, about one in nine high school swimmers continued their careers in college. Now, that number's around just one in fifteen.
No, it's not due to a lack of interest. Swimming at the club and high school levels is booming. These kids want to keep swimming.
The problem is the lack of opportunities. Program cuts and roster caps mean many of our kids will miss out on the college swimming experience. Thanks for the heads up, BG!
The Aggies have hired former Longhorn standout Tanica Jamison to assist Steve Bultman with the women's team. Read more here.
Title IX true believers will tell you if schools made the effort, equal numbers of girls and boys would be participating. First of all, that ignores the football factor, but beyond that it doesn't pass the culture test. Whether the hardliners will admit it or not, sports appeal to a greater percentage of males than females. Statistics across the board back that up.
It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical. At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts. Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin
...it looks like 2008 Olympian Scott Spann is hanging up the Speedo. Spann is to be replaced on the Shanghai roster by Elliot Keefer. Read more here. Spann was Unattached at Santa Clara last month.
2004 Olympian Rhi Jeffrey is training in N.Z. Results in the recent Aukland Winter Champs (SCM) are here.
Reagan's Alexa Morris is headed for A&M. Read more here.
Time for a Title IX update:
Schools on the receiving end of the Title IX billy club don't know what hit 'em. They're learning it's not about opportunities. No, it's really about using proportionality to shake down public schools. Don't say I didn't warn you. Read more here.
The Newport News Times reports that the nearly 600-page complaint is over two months old and the school district had not heard of it until a reporter inquired.
The complaint noted that in 2006 Taft and Newport had a 7 percent gap between the number and girl and boy athletes, and that the Schools were padding their numbers by counting cheerleading as a sport.
The school district counters that they do not use cheerleading in their assessment of athletic programs and that they are in compliance.
The Department of Education has not named the filer of the complaint.
It's so nice that lawyers are helping high school kids get an early education on what Title IX has become. Now, they don't have to wait until college...
A guy with some common sense - Craig Cervantes - gets the last word:
Low participation in sports by girls is not discrimination
More boys participate in sports in high school than girls in the U.S. and Oregon. This is a fact.
After reading the June 30 article regarding 60 schools in Oregon not being in compliance with Title IX, I was scratching my head. What does the Office of Civil Rights expect these high schools to do? Have the coaches walk the halls and force girls to go out for sports?
After looking at the participation numbers for both genders of 10 of the 11 local high schools, it's a simple fact: Boys participate in more sports. It's just the way it is. To say discrimination is evident is ridiculous, and the local athletic directors would agree with me.
The girls in high school, and especially the women in college, have had a lot of sports opportunities offered to them since 1972. I think this is great and very fair. But if the Department of Education and the Office of Civil Rights want to observe actual discrimination, they can see that almost 400 college wrestling programs have been eliminated nationwide since Title IX in 1972.
Now here's a complaint worth voicing that needs to be changed for our young men.
A week ago we had to suffer through all the b.s. those Johnny Know-It-All's were spouting about the demise of USA men's swimming.
