Open Water

Fellow Swimmers and Triathletes
There was a groundbreaking meeting of the minds this weekend. The Open Water Safety Conference, sponsored by USMS and PMS, was huge. This was a grassroots meeting of some of the most important people in swimming, especially open water swimming. There was a huge amount of participation and brainstorming and I think that this conference has brought the first and most important piece of this safety issue is AWARENESS. We are all much more aware of the inherent safety issues that need to be addressed and qualified.

The 2 most important people outside the actual swimming community were B. Cris Brewster, Chief of USLA, and Liz Tucker, who is the administrator of the officials(race director) certification for USAT. Chief Ralph Goto and Luitenant Buchannan were also key guests with expert insight.

In short, I think that all sanctioned open water swims of less than 10km should be swum under USAT or ITA sanction.

With the tremendous unhappiness with the world governing body of swimming, I think it should be looked at. Open Water Swims under 10km should be sanctioned by triathlons governing bodies.

Swims over 10 km should be dealt with individually thus not placing unnecessary burden on Triathlon Inc. Thus they will still be sanctioned by their own governing bodies, such as English Channel Swimming Association, World Marathon Swimming, Catalina Channel Association, etc. Really, they are elite events, not really competitions except for a very few select people. They should be viewed as human events of special importance like mountain climbing.

It appears that triathlon has its act together. From its infancy in the late 1970's, it has grown hugely and is a recognized Olympic sport. This is because it has excellent organization, it obviously has tremendous support and swimming in open water is only a part of the event. The event organizers are certified, they undoubtedly have safety for the masses in the forefront of their action plans, and there are way more triathlons than open water swims. This means that there is accountability among race directors.

Open water swimming needs to look carefully at this idea. FINA is under attack! Becoming sanctioned by Triathlon may make the insurance issue become less of a factor. I think they have their bases covered and we should just break away and go to another sanctioning body. I am sure they will welcome us. We will still be swimming, and perhaps their will be more open water swims. Triathlons soon may have a swim only portion.

We just need USAT and ITA to buy into this proposal.