7,200 compete in California at world masters championships
Whose fantasy is this? Since when do geezers from around the world buck U.S. visa restrictions and European hegemony to hold a world masters meet in the USA? Well, check this out: Between Aug. 1 and yesterday, more than 7,000 age-group athletes entered hundreds of events at several venues, winning a gazillion medals and setting numerous world records. The 11th FINA Masters World Swimming Championships just wrapped up in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Of course, masters swimming starts at age 25, unlike our 35.) But there is a point in all this. Why isn’t America bidding for the 2011 WMA world meet?
WMA has quietly announced Sept. 1 is the deadline for WMA affiliates to submit candidate sites for the 2011 World Masters Athletics Championships. The 2007 meet is slated for Riccione, Italy. The 2009 meet has been awarded to Finland, and the only bidder for 2011 is allegedly Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Although World Masters Athletics offers oodles of guidance on bidding, the Sept. 1 deadline has been studiously underplayed.
I’ve heard that the $150,000 sanction fee (payable to WMA by the winning bid city) is a stumbling block to seeking the WNA outdoor world meet. But that didn’t seem to stop Riccione — or Lahti, Finland. In any case, the FINA world masters swim meet in Palo Alto, California, must have taken mucho grande dinero as well.
Swimming and track are apples and oranges, you say? Can’t compare ’em?
Well, think again.
The 2004 FINA Masters World Swimming Championships were in — Riccione, Italy.
Your move, America. You want the worlds? Go get ’em!
