Every year around this time the great debate of yards versus meters in worldwide swimming relevancy hits its peak. Some say the NCAA Championships is an undeniable demonstration of swimming prowess, regardless of the pool measurement, while naysayers adhere to the thought that the yards-based championship exists in its own bubble. Others waver from one side of the fence to the other, depending on whether the swimmer in question swims for their team, or is Michael Andrew. Although the NCAA has a sizable demographic of international swimmers throughout, many meters-purists contend that, still, the U.S. is virtually the only nation in the world that races in this format.
Enter Cameron McEvoy. With the 2018 Commonwealth Games set to be hosted by his home nation in just over 2 weeks, the fastest 100m freestyler ever in a textile suit is tuned in to what’s happening in Minneapolis this week and even inserted his sentiment into the debate (albeit unknowingly).
A simple tweet by the 23-year-old Olympian stated, “NCAAs is making me pumped to race in two weeks at the Commonwealth Games.”
The tweet was sent in the AM Aussie time, right after the historic men’s 4×200 freestyle relay, where NC State crushed a new NCAA Record, Texas established a new American Record, and spectators were treated to the first sub-1:30 200y freestyle ever, courtesy of Blake Pieroni of Indiana.
Does Australian McEvoy ever swim yards? No. Can he, a non-U.S.-based athlete still appreciate the enormous dedication, teamwork and pride that comes with contesting events on this level’s biggest stage? Most certainly.
https://twitter.com/CameronMcEvoy/status/976610334617223168
It would be neat if the format were changed permanently to scm. That way world records could be broken.
Australia had male swimmers? Who knew..:.
We still dominate in the Olympics and World Championships… So I don’t see SCY being an issue… I wonder if more countries trained in it.. Would their Olympic medals in swimming increase too ?
No it’s still irrelevant ?
like these kids wouldn’t smack you in your own events in LCM
The fact is if NCAA is competed in metres, it will be much more popular among international fans.?People are like… This meet is great but why SCY?
Most pools in the US are SCY
Aka I am having troubles keeping motivated .
College still going with yards in 2018: never thought it would stay that way this long when track moved to metric 40+ years ago. Schools dedicate limited budgets to swimming and many can’t afford 50m pools.
Checkmate, athiests