While some swimming competitions have started to run in various parts of the world, the first announced meet in the U.S. appears to be taking place at the beginning of July in Wisconsin.
The Schroeder YMCA Swim/Dive Team, located in Brown Deer, has three tentative meets scheduled to run, with the first on Friday, July 3.
The meet will be an intrasquad affair, featuring the club’s 11-14 year-olds with state cuts, their senior athletes and their college athletes. The meet will be short course yards, with athletes wearing race suits.
“It will be a fun way to get back to racing and test out our new procedures for racing,” age group coach Caleb Hernday told SwimSwam.
The following weekend, Schroeder will host a dual meet with nearby club Oshkosh YMCA on July 11. This meet will be long course. These first two meets will not be sanctioned.
Using what they learned from the first two meets, Schroeder then hopes to host a larger meet in late July or early August in place of its annual Sprint/Distance meet that usually runs in May.
“We will take all that we learned from both our intra-squad and dual meet to make it a safe and fun experience,” said Hernday. “It will be long course as well.”
As you would expect, there are several new restrictions put in place for the meets due to COVID-19. Check out some of the key points below:
- No warm up or warm down in the competition pool — at least two lanes available in small pool throughout the meet.
- Athletes and families remain outside the pool at all times when not competing, adhering to social distancing guidelines. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in removal from the meet.
- Masks worn at all times (outside of vehicles) until the referee signals your race is ready to start.
- Athletes can watch the meet via YouTube live to follow the action and know when to get ready.
- No timers used — only touchpads (if there is a soft touch, athlete receives NT).
- No locker room or shower use, restrooms may be used one at a time per gender.
You can check out the full meet information here.
The state rules in Wisconsin amid the pandemic have varied by county, and Schroeder, located in Milwaukee county, also has a range of regulations in different suburbs.
Schroeder managed to run a trial practice on May 16 while working with the North Shore Health Department (NSHD), and got the go-ahead to resume training at one per-lane on May 22.
“We took eight athletes and tested our new system for running safe practices,” said Hernday. “We recorded the new system and showed it to all of our families. Each lead coach met with their respective groups (both athletes and parents) and broke down the new guidelines.”
As the NSHD moved into Phase 2, the club transitioned to a two-per-lane system on June 1.
“We began our most novice level swimmers this week after about 4ish weeks of practicing our new guidelines,” he said. “So far it’s worked out great! The families are all very appreciative of our guidelines and the athletes have been amazing in following them. Every once in a while we have to correct them, but it’s more a mental lapse than a disregard for the rules.
“We are excited to try and find ways to run competitions!”
Dr. Jeremy Friedman, associate pediatrician-in-chief at SickKids, said 5,000 symptomatic children were tested with the COVID nasal swab at the hospital since March and only 30 were found positive.
Drop these silly restrictions.
Good for Schroeder taking the lead. This will benefit everyone in the long run.
Our team isn’t even back in the pool yet, although we do have lap swimming opportunities. I don’t think my kids would even care if the times count or not. Any opportunity to race would be welcomed by most swimmers at this point.
LETS GO
Awesome! Thank you for leading the way and best of luck to you!
Is there a sanction?
The first two are not sanctioned, unsure on the third.
fingers crossed for a safe set of meets. hope they all hit the touch pad and that the equipment works. let the grade experiments begin.
Wearing a mask increases resistance to airflow, increases inspiratory CO2 levels (which can lead to hypercapnia and acidosis), and decreases inspiratory oxygen. Many of the headaches people report with prolonged mask wearing may be explained by low oxygen and/or high CO2.
Don’t think this is a smart move for our athletes.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/face-masks-pose-serious-risks-healthy/5712649
They’re not trying to set world records here. They’re just getting up on the blocks and racing. I coach in a mask 4-5 hours a day and I could take it off and hop up on the blocks. My time may not be amazing, but that’s not the point. The point is to enjoying being able to get up and race. Did you look at the meet information? It’s 50’s and 100’s. I think they’ll be ok.
Are you within 6 feet of others while coaching? Or facility requires you to?
No. I stand at one end of the pool while another coach stands at the other end during practices. We have 2 kids per lane, 1 on each end. I have a microphone so I can be heard through my mask while still staying an appropriate distance from my swimmers. We have a relatively large pool deck compared to most Y’s in our area.
You do know that Global Research publishes conspiracy theories? Please don’t try to spin that garbage off at fact
Wearing masks must be dangerous, which I guess is why healthcare workers have been doing so in various setting for …. decades? <>
Anything that disagrees with you is a conspiracy theory? Did you even read it or you just concluded right away. I didn’t say it was a fact, I said it was a concern.
Ad hominem attack rather than an attack on the content.
Before you disregard what I said, please look who started that website and what he and the site stands for. You did not state your concern as an opinion, you stated it as if it was a truth.
Point taken on the source (although they’re no worse than other sources I’ve seen quoted but I can do better).
https://www.sickkids.ca/PDFs/About-SickKids/81407-COVID19-Recommendations-for-School-Reopening-SickKids.pdf
Guidance statement(s):
• Non-medical and medical face masks are not required or recommended for children returning to school.
The following points were considered in this recommendation:
• There is a lack of evidence that wearing a face mask prevents SARS-CoV-2 transmission in children.
• It is recognized that some parents and children may choose to wear masks. This is a personal choice and should not be discouraged. To this end, equitable access to non-medical masks in the school setting is an important consideration.
• While at SickKids and other… Read more »
Your original post implied that wearing masks was harmful to children (based on “facts” of the posted source). The above talks about how there is not a proven benefit and they will not be required. That’s fine, but your original post (masks are harmful to children) and this link (masks provide no proven benefit, but are not proven harmful) is a different point
I was actually looking at athletes in my first post. Trying to do high level athletics while masking before you race. I didn’t explain well. As that wasn’t a good source, I found a better source and looked in general at children in a school setting (similar to athletic setting).
If no proven benefit (and potentially harmful to athletic performance)why go through all this security theatre?
Thorough medical lit review on masking:
https://www.rcreader.com/commentary/masks-dont-work-covid-a-review-of-science-relevant-to-covide-19-social-policy
So far you’ve posted a link from a conspiracy site, a link that doesn’t actually address the safety concerns you initially expressed, and a link from an Iowa entertainment paper written by a guy with with questionable credentials – that paper hasn’t been peer-reviewed despite being first published almost 2 months ago.
In the meantime, here is a link to a peer-reviewed literature review (far from the only one) authored by 10 scientists from 5 different countries determining “This study adds additional evidence of the enhanced protective value of masks, we stress that the use masks serve as an adjunctive method regarding the COVID-19 outbreak.” – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477893920302301
what you seem to call theater, the rest of the world calls science…
…and here is a peer-reviewed paper appearing in the May 2020 edition of the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal finding that masks are ineffective in preventing the spread of pandemic influenzas. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article
Thanks Rookie, I think everyone would agree two peer reviewed studies finding different things is a much better foundation for discussion on a topic than a conspiracy theory site and peer reviewed study.
Your source is hardly reliable, but lets take a look at the piece you linked: it doesn’t cite a single referenced study (or anything else for that matter) despite making multiple references to said studies. It also references multiple real life events without citing or linking to any of those. So you basically posted a blog post from a doctor with zero citations, and are using this as your evidence?
As for the ad hominem attack, the site is known for publishing proven conspiracy theories. There is an idea in logic that not all ad hominem attacks actually create fallacies (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/character-attack/)…in this case, raising the fact of the site’s publishing history seems relevant. Regardless… Read more »
Here is an idea for all the naysayers… If you don’t like then don’t participate! You probably aren’t invited anyhow so stop getting your speedo
all in a wad Karen,
That facility overall is way too small to keep everyone outside the pool other than those competing at the moment. It will be crawling with people; negating “social distancing”. The rest of the guidelines are either impractical, too restrictive or impossible to maintain. So an athlete has to fiddle with a mask & goggles while behind the block until the first whistle then remove the mask, readjust goggles and then step onto the block? Good luck with all that.
Did you read these are either inter squad meets or dual meets = small meet. You clearly have only been to meets there in the winter, plenty of room to social distance outside, where everyone goes in the summer.
I did read that these are inter squad i.e. smaller meets. I have been a swim parent for nearly a decade. I get it. I also know that any meet, even during the slower summer months brings people. The facility is small, plain and simple. I maintain the restrictions are going to be difficult to enforce. You are welcome to disagree and that is okay.
Only a decade, haven’t been in swimming very long. Facts are it’s easy to socially distance there in the summer, not so much in the winter. It has become clear to me, you are either a Bears or a Vikings fan, so sorry. Go Packers!