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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]In our league, the child can swim in their chosen (for lack of a better word) gender's events, but will be scored in their biological gender's events.  So your trans daughter could swim with the girls but will appear on the meet results as a boy.

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Which league?

Does that work both ways?  Could my[b] trans son[/b] win events they didn't swim in?  That seems really awkward.  
[/quote]

I don't think trans men have an advantage over biological men.[/quote]

You are missing the point.  PP is pointing out the odd result of winning without head-to-head racing.  It is a bit of an issue as a lot of the older kids can moderate their effort to maximize points based on who’s in the pool with them. A 16 yr old who can easily get second in backstroke but has no chance of winning May conserve energy for their next race.  Having someone swimming with the other gender but scoring with yours will throw a wrinkle in this.  May be the best outcome, but it is worth considering.[/quote]

Everything seems strange until it isn’t. This happens all the time in some official USA swimming club meets, as a pp has said. The results are reported broken out by age and gender, but the heats are run together. Swimmers learn to swim their own race, knowing that their competitors might not be in the same heat. Yes, a swimmer can win an event and not have gone head to head with the second place swimmer. This happens pretty often in the younger age groups and less often in the older ones. I’ve never heard anyone comment or complain about this, not even the kids.

I think that rec swimmers and their parents get more enjoyment and pleasure from winning a heat than club swimmers and their parents, who see most meets as a way to get times to qualify for bigger meets down the line. This isn’t a criticism of rec swimming - their meets serve a different purpose than club meets, so it makes sense that having a traditional heat format and winner is more important to them. Swimmers in club meets never “moderate their efforts” unless they are swimming a prelim/final format, because they care about their times much more than points. I would consider it a minor issue that is less important than trimming the timeline so that the meet is a reasonable length, or allowing swimmers to swim with their gender identity.  [/quote]

The comments above are I in response to the suggestion that trans kids swim with one gender and be scored with another, not the blended heats idea.  And I’m not thinking of heat winners at B meets but the single heat at A meets where all swimmers are traditionally swimming against each other, can see the competition, and points are on the line that dictate the outcome of the meet. [/quote]

USA swimming events also are run like an “A” meet unless it’s one that has prelims and finals, in which case I don’t think there is a recreational swim equivalent for those. And some of them are still run as mixed heats. I get your concern, but rec swim is not a unicorn that has to have separate heats for boys and girls. Plenty of club meets run mixed heats and still declare a club the winner at the end based on points. I agree that rec swim is more fun for parents to watch with the traditional format, but since competitive swim meets make it work, I’m sure rec swim can as well. If swimmers are paying attention, they can see their competition swim, and would likely have similar times and be in the same heat as them anyway. [/quote]

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