2000 United States Aquatic Sports Convention

A Report by Brian Carey

As the Junior Athlete’s representative of the Connecticut LSC (Local Swimming Committee), I had the privilege of attending the 2000 United States Aquatic Sports Convention in Orlando, Florida, from the 10^th to the 15^th of October. Coming into this convention I had no clue what to expect. The only thing that I knew for sure was that my flight was leaving from New York’s LaGuardia Airport on the 10^th at 7:55 PM. However, this sole certainty of my trip didn’t end up they way I thought it would be, as my flight was delayed to around 9:30 PM. I, along with Lauren Taft (Senior Athlete’s Representative from Wilton), and Mrs. Mary Lynch (one of Connecticut’s non-athlete representatives) sat in LaGuardia’s Delta Terminal waiting for the airplane to arrive. Finally, we boarded the plane and flew south to Orlando International Airport. We reached the airport at around 12, and by the time we had picked up our luggage and got on the shuttle to our hotel (the Hyatt Orlando) it was after 1 am. Lauren, Mrs. Lynch and I, checked into our rooms and got some much needed sleep.

The next morning I was awoken a little after 7 by my roommates, Mr. Clark Cooper (Connecticut Administrative Vice-Chair) and Mr. Ken Block (Connecticut’s Age-Group Committee chairman). After preparing for the day, I headed over to the convention center to the registration booth where I was give my credentials and my nametag for the week. I then headed to a First Timers Meeting, a meeting that introduced me to the format of the convention and which allowed me to meet some of my fellow athlete delegates. Following the meeting, I met with my coach, Ms. Ellen Johnston, who was serving on the USA Swimming Senior Swimming Committee, and we had a nice buffet breakfast. Only after the breakfast did Ellen inform me that the man who was sitting in the table to the left of ours was Jeff Rouse, the former 100 Backstroke World and American record holder (those records are now held by Lenny Krazyelburg, who later in the week was awarded Swimmer of the Year by USA Swimming).

For the rest of the first day, I along with Lauren and a few newly acquired friends from New York, and Wyoming attended various meetings ranging in subject from swim camps to the Executive Athletes’ Committee, which discussed mainly issues dealing with international competition. After a long day of meetings, a corporation that is trying to get the USOC’s bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games gave all of the delegates at the USAS Convention free-admission to Disney’s Epcot Center. It was truly a fun night for all.

My third day featured more meetings; the most relevant to Connecticut Swimming was the Eastern Zone meeting. During this meeting the big subject being discussed was the forthcoming Sectional Meet that will be held March 8-11, 2001 at the Goodwill Games Pool, in East Meadow, Long Island. During this highly anticipated meeting, much of the uncertainties surrounding this meet were worked out: time standards, order of events and other logistical aspects of the meet were finalized (the time standards can be found on the home page of this website). The rest of day I spend moving into a room with other athletes from Illinois, attending athlete related workshops and meetings, and for dinner the Connecticut Delegation discussed matters surrounding our LSC over a poolside buffet. After the nice dinner, I headed over to the Athlete’s lounge for a dance. This dance featured all of the swimming athlete representatives as well as some of the synchronized swimming representatives. I returned to my room following the dance and set my alarm for 5 AM, to get ready for morning practice, which was held at the YMCA Aquatic Center in Orlando.

I started my Friday morning early, by swimming a few thousand yards at the Aquatic Center. I had the choice of what lane to swim in, in lanes 1-3 were the sprinters, well as a 200 flyer and 400 IMer I decided those were not exactly the lanes for me. In lanes 4-6 were the distance swimmers, led by Olympic Bronze Medallist and American Record holder in the 1500 Meter Freestyle, Chris Thompson, I decided that distance was not for me either. In lane 7 were the synchronized swimmers, led by synchro-legend Bill May, who is to my knowledge the first male synchronized swimmer. Once again, lane seven was not for me. So I decided to swim in lane 8, which was a less intense workout than all of the other lanes. Practice adjourned at 7, at which time we returned to the Hotel for another day of meetings. The first meeting I attended was a National Team issues meeting that featured Olympic and Stanford University coach Richard Quick. Also present at the meeting was Chris Thompson, and Olympic Bronze medallist in the 200-meter Individual Medley, Tom Wilkins. During this meeting, my fellow delegate, Lauren Taft, had to return to the airport for a flight home so that she could take the SAT’s the next morning.

Friday night was the most impressive and most special night of the entire time I was in Florida. USA Swimming had arranged for several of the Olympic Swimmers to come out to Orlando and be acknowledged by the convention at the House of Delegates meeting. As a first-time athlete representative, I had the honor of escorting on of the female Olympians onto the stage where they were honored. I was given the tough task of escorting Gabrielle Rose who swam the 200 Meter Individual Medley in the Olympics games. My roommate from Illinois, James Wike, had the honor of escorting perhaps the most dominating American Female swimmer of the year, Dara Torres, who won several medals and competed in her fourth Olympics games at the age of 33. Along with Rose and Torres, there were 9 Olympic Athlete’s present: Klete Keller (400 Free, 800 Free Relay), Tom Malchow (200 Fly), Chris Thompson (1500 Free), Neil Walker (100 Free, 100 Back, 400 Free Relay), Tommy Hannan (100 Fly), Tom Wilkens (200 IM), Diana Munz (400 Free, 800 Free Relay), Maddy Crippen (400 IM), and Brooke Bennett (400, 800 Free). I met several of these athletes, and I spoke with Wilkens, Thompson and Walker all individually for a good amount of time. After Friday night’s session of the House of Delegates was concluded, I returned to my room to get some sleep and prepare for Saturday morning’s practice.

Saturday morning I decided to brave the distance lane and attempt to swim with Olympic Bronze medallist Chris Thompson of the University of Michigan. This challenged proved to be a little much for me, but I made it through the practice, just barely. Saturday is the big day at the convention. There is one big meeting for the entire day, which was actually a continuation of the meeting the previous night, the House of Delegates. At the HOD meeting, rules and regulations are passed, elections are made for executive positions in USA Swimming, and the budget is passed. Due to 2000 being an election year, the rules and regulations needed to have a 90% approval rating to be passed. This limited the discussion to a minimum. The House of Delegates meeting was scheduled from 8 AM to 12 PM, and from 1 PM to 5 PM, however due to the little
discussion, the meeting ended at 12:03 PM, which left all of the delegates a free beautiful afternoon in Orlando. Along with three representatives from Indiana, my two roommates, I went to Wet ‘N Wild, a water park in Orlando. This was a lot of fun. We returned to the hotel at 6 o’clock to prepare for the nights Awards Banquet that featured all 5 aquatic sports at the convention, (swimming, diving, masters swimming and synchronized swimming). The banquet was emceed by US Swimming legend and 2000 Olympic team captain Josh Davis. The major swimming awards that were awarded were Performance of the Year, Misty Hyman’s 200 Fly Gold Medal Performance, Swimmer of the Year, Lenny Krazylberg and the Athlete’s Appreciation Award which was given to the 1976 Woman’s Olympic Swim Team.

Saturday night concluded my stay at the Convention. Early Sunday morning I woke up and caught my flight back home. The convention ended up being one of the most inspirational and fun experiences of my life.

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