No Shows…It’s Becoming a Problem

Pascual Perez is somewhat of a folk hero here in Atlanta.  Perez was a Dominican baseball pitcher for the Atlanta Braves who missed a scheduled start in 1982  because he couldn’t figure out how to get off Atlanta’s perimeter highway on his way to a game.  Perez had just gotten his driver’s license and drove around Atlanta’s 65 mile circular Highway 285 three times looking for his exit until he finally ran out of gas.

Am I the only one imagining Nathan Adrian, Penny Oleksiak, Kevin Cordes and Molly Hannis carpooling to the Georgia Tech pool this morning and getting lost?  All  scratches at the Arena Pro Swim Series meet in Atlanta.  Is this becoming a problem in our sport?  How much of one?  Does it need fixing?  Is it any of our business why swimmers no-show?   Each athlete has their own reasons for not competing after signing up but at some point it becomes a little much and psych sheets become less relevant.

The much hyped rematch for the Women’s 100 Free at the APSS Atlanta isn’t going to happen tonight.  The SwimSwam hype might have been a little bit my fault.  Ooopsies.  There were a lot of other no-shows and it makes promoting this event a little more difficult.  A lot of the high priests and priestesses of American swimming are still here, but for those of us expecting a Tae Hwan Park v. Nathan Adrian showdown tonight are going to have to settle for  Park v. the field with Nathan DNSing. I’ll wash everyone’s car if Park doesn’t win this.

Kevin Cordes didn’t start the 200 breast either.  I’d drive a hundred miles to watch his picture perfect stroke up close. We’ll still get an pretty good battle between Chase Kalisz and Cody Miller but it’s a little disappointing nevertheless.   Fans tonight will get treated to a double dose of Katie Ledecky in the 100/400 free. The Women’s 100 free will still be worth watching just to see where Simone is in her long course preparations. This is going to be another Simone v. the field matchup with Oleksiak staying home.  The 400 free will be a battle for second with Flickinger and the C/Sierras. The women’s 200 breaststroke will be interesting and we’ll see if Lilly King will continue beating up on that girl she’s been beating up on all year.   This particular event is wide open for the Americans heading into Budapest with  Katie Meili, Melanie Margalis and Miranda Tucker making a lot of noise trying to knock off King and Hannis at US Nationals later this summer for those two spots.

Can’t blame the sponsor for the no-shows. Same for meet management.  The problem sometimes gets worse on the last night after a prelim winner n- shows the final, usually because of inflexible travel issues.  Sometimes you just can’t afford to change the $100 flight to a $300 next day flight.  I’m on the athlete’s side and I’m certain everyone who was supposed to be here today has a legitimate reason for scratching/not attending but in this age of instant communication I’d like to see just a teensy weensy bit more accountability from those scheduled to be here. It seems unlikely that most of the scratches are from swimmers who are undecided about their attendance a few days before the meet. It only takes a second to tweet something out.

Editor’s Note: This editorial was written by Kierra Smith, who is competing at this weekend’s Pro Swim Series meet in Atlanta. She lost to Lilly King at the Olympics, at the Big Ten Championships, and at the NCAA Championships, but did beat her in the 200 breaststroke in Rio.