Why We LOVE the Charlotte UltraSwim
With USA Swimming’s Mike Gustafson announcing his 2011 Shammy Awards earlier this week and the Charlotte UltraSwim earning a nod for the best “Home Away From Home”, we at SwimMAC wanted to share the reasons why we LOVE the Charlotte UltraSwim. Here are our top five:
- Tradition: The meet has been around since 1985 and had UltraSwim as the lead sponsor since 1989 (Thanks UltraSwim!). This meet has hosted over 10,000 swimmers over the years and over 130 Olympic athletes.
- Autographs: It’s not everyday when us normal, non-elite athletes get to rub elbows with some of the best athletes in the world. At the Charlotte UltraSwim we can! The world class, and classy people if you ask us, will sign autographs until their hands fall off, or until they have to be back in the pool to swim.
- Free Stuff! So the athletes do get some free stuff, a pair of Rainbow Sandals if you win your event, hospitality baskets to the Olympic athletes, prize money too, but what about the free Wendy’s for a year for a fan?? Can’t beat that.
- AMAZING competition: Most recently, we had the Cullen Jones and Josh Schneider swim-off, but who can forget the 1990 incredible win by Jenny Thompson, then 12 years old, in the 50 free over a star-studded international field on ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
- Money: Ok, so maybe this also goes with free stuff, but there is a lot of money up for grabs at the Charlotte UltraSwim. Not only does Wendy’s put up some cash for the winners, but each race has a meet record- Presbyterian Sports Medicine Meet Record- and anyone who beats that meet record gets the cash. Each year the records stands, the pot grows. Currently, Tom Malchow’s record in the 200 fly from the 2000 meet still stands and will pay out $1,000.00 to the man who breaks it.
We can’t wait for the 2012 event on May 10-13! You never know what can happen in an Olympic year and with the Charlotte UltraSwim is a little over a month before the Olympic Trials, we can only imagine what might shake out.
