April 11, 2019 Mr. Jerry Adams, Chair Eastern Zone Technical Planning Committee Re: Proposed 2019 EZ LC Age Group Championship Qualifying Times Mr. Adams, Using a database of 23 million USA-S age group swims, I found that the proposed qualifying times for the 2019 Eastern Zone LC Age Group Championship give significantly more opportunity to boys at the expense of girls, and to younger athletes at the expense of older ones.
My analysis of the proposed cuts is attached and available online at: http://www.swimtheory.com/home/003-qualifying-times/meets/ez2019l Using the same database, I compared the four zone LC age group championships in 2018. The comparison shows that it is twice as hard for a 14/under to qualify for age group championships in the eastern zone (0.24) than the western (0.39) or central (0.41) zones, largely because the Eastern Zone makes it so easy for 15/overs to qualify (1.10). The analysis also shows that the Central Zone, which uses "AAA" motivational times, is the most gender-fair zone age group championship. My analysis of the zone championships is also attached and available online at http://www.swimtheory.com/home/003-qualifying-times/003-007-zone-championships-are-unfair Based on these two analyses, I recommend that the Eastern Zone LC age group championship (a) limit age group championships to 14/Unders and (b) use USA Swimming’s "AAA" motivational times for all of its qualifying times because they are vastly fairer with respect to both age and gender than the proposed times. Sincerely, @SwimTheorist CC: Eastern Zone Technical Planning Committee Members
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