Volume 1 Issue 2 Through Our Goggles Fall 2012 Upcoming Events THE LIFE AND NEWS OF FLORIDA Oct 6 ~ 7, 2012 - 2012 FS SWIMMING Annual Convention- UPDATE 9/17 Oct 12 ~ 13, 2012 - SWIM Meet-UPDATED 9/24 Oct 13 ~ 14, 2012 - STAT Meet-UPDATE 8/6 Oct 13 ~ 14, 2012 - TCSC WORDS FROM YOUR ATHLETE REPRESENTATIVES Meet-UPDATE 9/19 Oct 19 ~ 21, 2012 - CFM These past few months have been an exciting and Meet-UPDATE 9/10 monumental time for USA Swimming. For one, as everybody knows, the Olympics just took place, which Oct 19 ~ 21, 2012 - WFLA always shows swimming in the peak of its glory. Records Meet-UPDATE 9/5 were broken, goals were achieved, new faces were shown, old veterans returned and some even used the Oct 20 ~ 21, 2012 - BSS Meet-UPDATED 9/19 Olympics as the last-hurrah in their swimming career. Besides the Olympics, the annual US National Aquatic Oct 20, 2012 - YCF Meet Convention was recently held in Greensboro, North Carolina. In this edition of the newsletter, we would like to Oct 27, 2012 - DBS Meet cover the important topics and issues discussed at the Convention, as well as the new decisions that were made Oct 28, 2012 - BD Meet regarding the future of our sport. And even though we (closed)-UPDATE 9/25 know that you kept up with the Olympics, we are going to Oct 28, 2012 - SPA Meet include an Olympic section anyway, because it’s always fun to look back and remember those moments. Further Nov 2, 2012 - GCST down, you will also see a “Meet Your Representatives” Meet-UPDATE 9/25 section, so make sure to keep reading! Nov 10 ~ 11, 2012 - PA Jackie Kenny Meet Senior Athlete Representative/Editor Nov 16 ~ 18, 2012 - BSS Meet Nov 16 ~ 18, 2012 - SYS Meet Nov 16 ~ 18, 2012 - TCA Meet-UPDATE 9/17 Need To Contact Us? Want To Learn More? If you have any thoughts, Want to learn ideas, questions, or more about concerns about Florida your LSC, or Swimming, you can email us at... stay updated with what’s [email protected] going on in Also, if you have any Florida ideas to improve the Swimming? newsletter, make sure to You can visit us let us know! here! Contributors to This Issue: Corey Stein, Jackie Kenny – The Olympics Corey Stein- Random Rules, Making a Motion Jackie Kenny- Paralympics, National Aquatic Convention Kaitlyn Kent, Emma Donahue, "I enjoyed every bit of Patrick Lane, Jackie Kenny- Meet my swimming career. Your Representatives I think that's the most important advice — Erik Bing- Swimming in College? to enjoy what you do.” ~ Summer Sanders This past summer, the Olympics took place in London in front of billions of World Records Broken By viewers. Swimming was one of the most talked about sports, and for U.S.A: good reason! The US Swim Team led the meet with 31 total medals 1. The U.S. Women’s 4x100 medley throughout the Games, beating relay : 3:52.05. second-place Japan by a whopping twenty medals. We won 2. Missy Franklin’s 200m 16 Gold, 9 Silver, and 6 Bronze, backstroke: 2:04.06 cementing the USA’s position of the leading swimming powerhouse. The 3. Dana Volmer’s 100m butterfly: races themselves were surrounded 55.98 with suspense, as the world watched Michael Phelps and Ryan 4. Rebecca Soni’s 200m Lochte duke it out in the 400 and breaststroke: 2:19.59 200 IM, Missy Franklin win four Gold and one Bronze medals, and the rest of the team swim outstanding races, breaking records and defeating rivals left and right. Open Water: Haley Anderson won silver in the grueling 10km race, giving the US their very first open For full coverage of the water Olympic medal. Olympic Swimming, Anderson had an unbelievable complete with interviews, race and finished just .4 of a articles, and videos of the second behind first place. events, click here! PagePage 2 3 On the other side of the pool, the USA once again showed that they World Records were a force to be reckoned with. Broken By U.S.A: With their fierce determination, heart and endless training time behind them, our Paralympic team 1. Victoria Arlen’s 100m swooped in and took 4th place freestyle- S6: 1:13.33 overall, with a staggering total of 41 medals. 14 Gold, 13 Silver and 14 Bronze placed us just behind China, 2. Jessica Long’s 400m Australia and Ukraine. Jessica Long freestyle-S8: 4:42.28 was our top medal winner and ranked 3rd overall after the end of the games, with 5 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze. Some of our other outstanding swims came from Kelley Becherer, Victoria Arlen, Cortney Jordan and Roy Perkins. Overall, it was an unbelievable, suspenseful and exciting competition. Congratulations to Jessica Long! Based on her amazing performance at the 2012 Paralympics, 20 year old For full coverage of the Jessica Long was named the Paralympic Swimming, Paralympic Sports Woman of complete with interviews, the year. articles, and videos of the events, click here! Page 4 Aquatic Sports National Convention For those of you who have never heard of the Convention, it’s an annual conference that consists of all the Aquatic Sports. In other words, all the representatives and leaders from USA Swimming, Synchronized Swimming, Water Polo and Diving meet to discuss the state of their sport, legislation, issues, give out awards, elect new representatives, etc. This year, the Convention was held in Greensboro, North Carolina, from September 11th to the 16th. Overall, it was a very smooth, productive and just amazing week. The Convention is filled with people who are passionate about their sport and who want to make a difference so that the sport can continue to grow and improve. Consequently, we got to meet athletes, coaches, officials and volunteers from all across the nation who have given an unbelievable amount of effort and time to help swimming develop and expand into what it is today. Below, you’ll see some of the Convention’s important highlights. New Legislation: At the House of Delegates meeting, several adjustments, corrections and amendments were made to USA Swimming’s Rules and Regulations. Among the most important concerned Safe Sport, a huge program in USA Swimming that deals with athlete protection. Two pieces of legislation were added, the first a provision to the Athlete Protection Policies under Article 305 of our Rules. This provision requires that each USA Swimming club develop its own anti-bullying plan and for USA Swimming to provide a model plan as an example. The 2nd piece of legislation requires all LCS’s to establish a Safe Sport Coordinator, who will be responsible for the implementation of the Safe Sport Programs at the LSC Level and for receiving feedback and questions. However, the Coordinator is not an officer of the Board and Page 5 New Legislation (continued): consequently does not receive a vote. Another hot topic that came up during the HOD was deck changing and several amendments were raised to try and to prohibit deck changing but none of them passed. To see the complete packet of new legislation and amendments from the 2012 National HOD, click here! Awards and Recognitions: ~ Based on her performance at the 2012 Olympics, Missy Franklin was given the prestigious Award. Congratulations to Missy!! ~ In honor for everything that he’s done for swimming, including but not limited to the impact he has had on athletes, the recognition he has brought to our sport and the unbelievable milestones that he has overcome, Michael Phelps was given the “Athletes Appreciation” Award. Congratulations and thank you again to Michael! ~Based off her performance at the 2012 Open Water Olympics and her silver medal in the 10km, Haley Anderson was given the “Female Open Water Swimmer of The Year” Award. Congratulations to Haley! ~ Because of his leadership, his continuing drive to make Open Water as safe as possible, his passion and amazing abilities as a swimmer, his performance at the 2012 Open Water Olympics and his close friendship with the Crippen family, Alex Meyer was awarded the “Fran Crippen Memorial Male Open Water Swimmer of the Year Award”. Congratulations to Alex! Page 6 Elections: This year was an important election year, since most of the positions on the national Board of Directors were up for election. Here are the people who were elected or re-elected to your BOD: • President – Bruce Stratton • Vice President, Program Development – Jeff Gudman • Vice President, Administration – Mary Jo Swalley • Vice President, Program Operations – Jim Sheehan • Vice President, Technical - David Berkoff • Treasurer – Stu Hixon • OIOC Coordinator – Brandon Drawz • Western Zone Director – Ben Britten • Eastern Zone Director – Ed Dellert • Central Zone Director – Steve Potter • Southern Zone Director – Jay Thomas • Athletes Executive Committee Chair – Tim Liebhold • Athletes Executive Committee Vice Chair – Dan Procter • Athletes Executive Committee Representative – Kelley Otto Southern Zone Meeting: At every Convention, USA Swimming breaks up into their Zones (Western, Central, Eastern and Southern) for their separate meetings and discussions about the year. This year, in the Southern Zone, we went over the Zone Meets, which you will see an overview of below. 2012 Southern Age Zone Championships: Location: Rockwell, Texas ~ 613 swimmers from 15 different LSC’s ~ 9 disability swimmers from 5 LSC’s ~10 new meet records set! ~ Combined Team Scores: 1. Georgia 2. Florida 3. North Carolina Page 7 Southern Zone Meeting (continued): 2012 Southern Age Zone Championships (cont.): ~Sportsmanship Award: Georgia ~ General Consensus: An excellent, fun, very well run meet. The officials were fantastic and the spectator seating was extremely nice.