Masters Swimming Canada

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (September 2007)

The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.(December 2007)

From notes prepared by, among others, Beth Whittall, formerly Executive Secretay of Masters Swimming Canada

Masters Swimming is structured adult fitness swimming which may include competitions in pools or open water. Its primary objectives include fun, fitness, friendship and participation.

Humans have been swimmers for millennia. Although most mammals can swim, humans are one of the best designed of the land based mammals for this activity. Their joint structures, lack of hair, light bones and heavy head makes it relatively easy compared to other mammals to achieve a level streamlined position in the water to maximize the propulsion capacity of their arms. Some anthropologists theorize that this swimming ability encouraged some early humans to live near water where they could feed on aquatic food sources, many of which were high in the Omega based vitamins which we now know contribute to brain growth and health.

The history of swimming as a sport and a fitness activity for adults was stimulated just over a century ago with the rebirth of the Olympic Games, the growth of "leisure time" among certain components of society and the recognition of the relationship between exercise and health, quality of life, etc. Adult fitness swimming became popular in Europe, particularly in Germany, in the early part of the last century. The Germans, realizing the value of swimming for fitness, rebuilt their adult swim programs after the devastation of World War 2.

In Canada a century ago many people did not have water supplied to their homes and a number of municipalities built “Baths” where people could go to get clean and in many cases exercise by swimming or walking in a swim tank. The Champlain Baths in Ottawa, which has been tastefully modernized and is an excellent example of such a facility.

The YMCA also became supportive of aquatic fitness at this time and built pools in many of their larger facilities where they encouraged adult lane swim. Until the Y introduced circle swimming in the thirties, only two swimmers could swim per lane. The Y also introduced the idea of putting a line on the bottom of the pool under the centre of each lane to help the swimmer swim straight and avoid collisions.

It is likely that the idea of a structured adult swimming fitness organization was introduced by the Germans to members of the US and other occupying forces after the second world war, as it was primarily through the US military that this idea was first introduced into the Americas. Foremost among those involved was Captain Ransom J. Arthur, M.D., who by his leadership and commitment to improving the health of adults through swimming established the first Masters swimming programs in the US. It is believed that he first used the term “Masters” swimming to describe our sport around 1960.

The first Masters competitions in the Americas took place in the US during the sixties. These were local, often very small and by to-days’ standards, quite unprofessional. The first US Masters National Championship took place on May 2-3, 1970 at Amarillo, TX with 46 competitors. It was agreed at this time to set up a national Masters organization to be called United States Masters Swimming. They held their first annual meeting at Lake Placid, NY in 1971 and Arthur was elected President. The US swimming community, consisting of the children and youth swim clubs, the college swim programs and the state and national elite swimming programs, were not impressed with this development and basically wanted to have nothing to do with Masters swimming. This was probably a good thing as it allowed US Masters to develop their own parallel organization to USA Swimming and take full responsibility for their sport. As time went on it became clear that Masters were contributing greatly in a number of ways to aquatics in the US.

The first Canadians to become involved were Professor Hud Stewart of Osgoode Hall Law School, a Canadian track and field Olympian who had become keenly interested in adult fitness, and his friend Al Waites, entered the second US Masters National Championship, again at Amarillo, on May 7 and 8, 1971 with 106 US swimmers. Hud was so impressed with this development that on his return to Toronto he established Canada’s first Masters Club, “The University of Toronto Masters” swimming at Hart House and consisting primarily of University staff but including some older students who were not on the University swim teams.