Controversy struck the 2016 European Masters Championships, as an open letter yesterday was published directed towards British Swimming CEO David Sparkes. The meet ran from May 25th to the 29th.
The letter, which you can read in full here, criticized the lack of limitations on meet entries. There were allegedly far too many swimmers entered in a meet that simply wouldn’t be able to host such a large amount of athletes. Thus, many swimmers entered the meet and invested time and money to get there and compete only to be told far too late that the meet was overbooked. According to the letter, entries to the meet were given out on a first come, first served basis only four days prior to the beginning of the meet.
“The resulting debacle and the ensuing scramble to shoe horn as many people as possible into the event, led to administrative chaos and completely avoidable strain on both competitors and the people delivering the event.”
The author of the letter, Verity Dobbie, concludes her letter suggesting there might be a new federation established to run affairs for masters swimming.
Sparkes responded to Dobbie, saying that he had “received numerous positive comments from Masters Swimmers who participated in London from around Europe and expressing how appreciative they are with the opportunity to swim in London in the Aquatic Centre.”
In his response, he also said that “we all agree there were challenges and we all also agree that the Organising Committee did a great job. There are of course lessons to learn as there are from every major event and both LEN and British Swimming will take these on board in due course.”
Simon Rothwell, LEN Masters Chairman, also gave a reply to Dobbie’s letter. He echoed that there were issues regarding the entries, saying “you are right that at the beginning of the week the challenge was extremely difficult to manage but by working together things did improve. Not something any of us would want to repeat though.”
Neither Sparkes nor Rothwell proposed any explicit changes or further actions that would take place following their responses.
Pleased that after the weird entry process ended up putting me off entering after all!! I made sure I compared my times at a local open meet with the results but I now realise my local open meet gave me unfair advantages as I had 60mins available warm ups and a small pool to cool down in; no queues; started at 1pm or 6pm with a finish time of 7.30pm so a good meal and plenty of time to relax afterwards.
The feedback I got from Stratford was late nights, no decent warm ups, definitely no cool downs, queues everywhere, doubling up in lanes and frustration!! If it wasn’t for seeing old friends and good weather (when able to see… Read more »
Sparky, come and try diving instead. We weren’t treated anything like as badly as the swimmers, however there were many things left to the last minute in order for our competitions to be successful. Certain divers, coaches and officials from GB, Austria and Germany rallied together along with the recorders (the people who record the scores and give the final results) to produce a workable programme. It was the competitors who ‘made’ the event, not the likes of Sparks and Rothwell. At least the latter was at the pool, but effective: don’t think so.
David Sparkes suggests he has received positive feedback. That appears to be the party line being tabled by the man who wasn’t there.sweep it under the carpet and it will go away.
Well I don’t think so Mr Sparkes.
But – to all the participants who suffered this contemptuous treatment- you need to contribute and not sit back expecting the few to champion the call for change at the top
You know what I would like at a championship meet.. a freaking warm down pool. Only getting a 10min warm up for a race thar you had to wait in line for 2 hours to get into the venue for then not being able to warm down after is pure insanity.
Hi Karl, one concern I have not mentioned falling out of this is what is going to happen at Budapest next year, that will have exactly the same problems, they (FINA) need to be thinking very carefully about how to manage the numbers.
Verity
PS I forgive you for the inadvertent sex change!
It was a European Masters Championships, not a festival of swimming party! People go to compete and win medals! QT’s are an absolute must. British swimming has online Masters rankings and I presume other countries do to? Use them to get the top 200,300 or however many people it takes to fill up a days swimming of reasonable time, that does not run on until midnight! The event was one day shorter than the 2013 meet in Eindhoven, yet there were more than double the entries! Masters bring in a huge amount of money into swimming, yet are treated like an inconvenience by people like Dave Sparkes. However, many of us have competed at the top level in our younger… Read more »
Will Italy ever get a slap on the wrist for allowing so many swimmers to compete who’ve clearly never swum faster than the time standards?
hand over fist
A case in point was the 800m Frs at the Australian Masters Champs earlier this year, swimmers had to swim 2 to a lane!! As entry numbers were way above expectations and otherwise this single event would have taken all day…time for some qualifying times perhaps to manage entry numbers.
Agree. Masters swimming should be inclusive, but a national/international championship should have QTs set to keep the meets reasonably sized.
We regularly swim 2 per lane in distance events at all levels of meets. Its not a big deal in a 50 meter pool. Is it ideal? No, but not really hard. I agree qualifying times at major meets make sense.
But it is still should not happen. A swim-mate of mine swimming the 800 fs had to repeatedly avoid the oncoming swimmer in the same lane who did not keep to her side!
It’s about time some form of qualifying time gets implemented at such large meets so at least numbers can be managed in the interest of all stake holders.
There were qualifying times which were far too easy…
Typical masters swimmer, in the “somebody else should do something for me” category. This guy never proposes himself as a volunteer or to do any of the heavy lifting involved with putting on a major meet, let alone running an organization. Which reminds me, thank you to U.S. Masters swimming organization and all the volunteers for all you do!
Verity was the (volunteer) chair of the British Masters Committee (all volunteers). This committee worked tirelessly on behalf of masters in Britain to put on events and help masters swimmers. They tried very hard to advise Britush Swimming and LEN about the Europeans which was always going to be a massive event in London’s Olympic pool. The response by the governing bodies was to bluntly disband (by email) this body a month before the Europeans. Our volunteers are great, our governing bodies are not!
If you’re referring to Verity with your barb then you couldn’t be more wrong – she’s been at the forefront of masters swimming in Britain for many years, most recently as chairman of the now disbanded British Swimming Masters Committtee. So your criticism is wildly misplaced. (And yes huge thanks due to all those volunteers who make these events possible)
You are wrong! Verity has worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years to ensure that British Masters Swimming is properly run. I can assure you that Verity is not, and never has been, in your category, “somebody else should do something for me.” Your comment is not only misguided but it is offensive to masters swimmers in the UK who are grateful to Verity for all she has done for us.
Why bother commenting when, clearly, you have no idea what you’re talking about?
Hi Trainwithnogoggles,
I am aware you don’t know me (otherwise you would realise that I’m a her) and it is perhaps a national failing that we Brits tend to understate matters and are modest about our achievements but there is a hint of the work I do for our sport in the second paragraph of my letter.
However if you consider a typical masters swimmer to be someone who has amongst other things:- swum at every single FINA world championships, and 7 or so European championships, has sat on the ASA Masters and British Masters swimming committees for 24 years, at various times holding the position of secretary and chair; with the support of Walt Reid set up… Read more »
Mea culpa Verity! After thinking about my anger, I realize I took out my own frustrations on you -erroneously lumping you into that category of individuals – who are not representative of worldwide masters – that ultimately caused me to resign my position and say let someone else do a tour of duty. I have been LMSC officer and usms delegate. You have earned the right to rant from time to time.
Keep swimmIng,
TWNG
Apology accepted TWNG, no hard feelings,I understand where you’re coming from and agree it would be nice if a few more people helped out every now and then though!