Explain swimmer being unattached for multiple years

[Anonymous]

So a swimmer joins club and gets a new USA swimming number. They state they were with club B for years.

On swimcloud it shows club B, club C and Club D. But when looking up they are unaffiliated with any club and showing up as unattached for at least the past three years.

Is this a product of the new usa swimming number? What club or in this case multiple clubs allow a swimmer to swim unattached (I know ours will not).

Explain why would this be the case. I have never seen or heard of it before.

[Anonymous]

Were they swimming those years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Were they swimming those years?

Yes. And are in USA swimming as unattached making PVS champs etc. for at least three years in a row.

Will some clubs be okay with that? And it appears three different clubs.

Or can the club remove its name after the fact?

[Anonymous]

You are listed as unattached for several months when you switch clubs. If they switched often enough this could cause it. Also you don’t have to actually be registered with a club to be registered with USA Swimming. You can hire your own coach and train independently. Michael Andrew was (is?) famously unattached. Swimmers living overseas with the military also have a way to register as unattached and have their times submitted to SWIMS so they can come back to the U.S. and compete in the larger meets.

[Anonymous]

You are also required to have coach supervision during a meet, so some swimmers with smaller clubs register for some meets as unattached as their coach is not at a given meet. They are then under the responsibility of a coach from another club.

[Anonymous]

Some swimmers who don’t swim with a club will swim unattached. They have a parent who got certified as a coach or have a coach who agreed to supervise them at meets. I think the only limitation is that they can’t be on a relay, but otherwise they can swim at any open meet or LSC championships as long as they have a USA swimming membership.