Return of the Short Course National Championships Highlights House of Delegates

PHOENIX, Arizona, September 25. AFTER a 17-year hiatus, the U.S. National Short Course Championships are back. During a vote at the USAS Convention in Dearborn, Mich., the house of delegates decided to bring back the short course meet to take place in December 2007 at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

The short course meet will decide the roster of USA Swimming’s team headed to the 2008 World Short Course Championships to be held in Manchester, England April 9-13.

The news proved to be music to the ears of many swimmers that believed a short course roster should be decided by a short course meet. The last time this actually happened in USA Swimming came in 1990 during the final short course national championship in the U.S. The meet took place in Nashville, Tenn., in March of that year.

That meet featured Tom Jager and Matt Biondi going head to head in the 50 free. Jager came out on top with a then-world-record 19.05, while Biondi hit the wall in 19.12 in front of 2,100 spectators at the Tracy Caulkins Competition Pool. Both times surpassed the 19.15 set by Biondi during the 1987 NCAA Championships.

“I felt the pressure of trying to make the Goodwill Games,” Jager said at the time. “What broke the tension was the fans before the race clapping and stomping. I wanted to turn the crowd on.”

Amazingly, Jager dropped a huge amount of time from his prelim effort of 19.39 that qualified him third overall.

Here is the Swimming World Magazine article on the 1990 Short Course Championships.
Swimming World Magazine article from the 1990 Short Course Championships

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The house of delegates also voted on other items of interest. For a complete listing of those votes, please check the following PDF files:
Expanded List
Summary List

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