Under the leadership of Chip Carrigan (shown on left), John Kinney and the
USA Swimming On-Line Testing Sub-committee,
USA Swimming has added a new online Open Water Certification Test on its website.
Any registered member of USA Swimming is eligible and encouraged to take the latest and newest test at
USA Swimming.org.
Instructions on how to take the test can be located
here on the
USA Swimming website (under Volunteers > Officials > Officials Online Test.
The purpose of this 50-question test is to certify the knowledge and understanding of open water swimming rules by officials who are working at USA Swimming national championship events and Local Swim Committee-sanctioned open water competitions.
The Open Water Certification Test has been years in the making and will prove invaluable to standardize and confirm the level of knowledge among open water swimming judges, officials and referees in the US. As an online test, any eligible USA Swimming member can take the test at their convenience. The ease of modern technology is being utilized effectively to help the sport grow and prosper.
Like most sports, most of the open water swimming rules are cut-and-dry. But like water polo, the dynamic nature of open water swimming requires its officials to be well-versed in the sport’s rules and how athletes tend to move in the water against their opponents. An experienced official can make the correct call and help create fair competitions, especially when large packs of swimmers are barreling down a straightaway towards the finish or fighting for position around a turn buoy,
But, similar to the foul of charging in basketball or pass interference in football, sometimes making a call in open water swimming can be difficult. However, unlike basketball or football, there are no replays in open water swimming. The open water swimming referee has to get it right the first time when he/she must make a judgment call on the spot.
The test combines a variety of cut-and-dry questions with questions that cover different scenarios that officials will experience in many open water swimming competitions. The test-taker will be questioned on a variety of real-world scenarios that will help them prepare for actual competitions.
Because open water races are held in venues with all kinds of shapes and distance under conditions that vary from oceans with heavy surf, lakes shrouded in mist and rowing basins under glassy conditions, open water swimming officials need to be confident in their knowledge of the rules – and the new USA Swimming online Open Water Certification Test is a great step to achieving this goal.
Upper photo of the famous photo-finish at the 2005 World Swimming Championship men's 25K finish by
Dr. Jim Miller.
Lower photo of
professional marathon swimmers in
Lac St-Jean also by
Dr. Jim Miller.
USA Swimming featured 2009 world 10K championship silver medalist Andrew Gemmell on its home page in an article entitled Successfully Swimming the Open Seas written by correspondent Mike Watkins. Click here to read.
Today, Swim Network posted its Open Water Wednesday that focuses on USA Swimming's annual National Open Water Select Camp.
Under the leadership of Chip Carrigan (shown on left), John Kinney and the USA Swimming On-Line Testing Sub-committee, USA Swimming has added a new online Open Water Certification Test on its website. 
The Open Water Certification Test has been years in the making and will prove invaluable to standardize and confirm the level of knowledge among open water swimming judges, officials and referees in the US. As an online test, any eligible USA Swimming member can take the test at their convenience. The ease of modern technology is being utilized effectively to help the sport grow and prosper.
Because open water races are held in venues with all kinds of shapes and distance under conditions that vary from oceans with heavy surf, lakes shrouded in mist and rowing basins under glassy conditions, open water swimming officials need to be confident in their knowledge of the rules – and the new USA Swimming online Open Water Certification Test is a great step to achieving this goal.
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. 
So how does this compare to other countries? Olympic 10K Marathon Swim gold medalist Larisa Ilchenko reportedly received an apartment and 100,000 euros (US$127,169) for her Olympic 10 km victory.
USA Swimming will soon send two inspirational and instructional DVDs to every registered swim team. The DVDs include the 2008 Highlights DVD and Out of the Box: Open Water Swimming.
The 2008 Highlights DVD is an inspirational three-part DVD set that includes over five hours of video. The first DVD includes highlights from the 2008 Olympic Trials, the second features women’s pool races from the Beijing Olympics and the third DVD shows men’s races from Beijing.
British Swimming has long-term strategic plans to develop its top open water swimmers. So do many of the most competitive national federations, but these plans take on many different forms. Today, USA Swimming is sending out an educational open water swimming DVD to its registered 2,800 swim clubs as a means to develop interest in the sport.
Written by Steven Munatones with Dave Thomas (shown on left) and filmed at the USA Swimming National Open Water Select Camp and the Open Water Festival in Ft. Myers, Florida, the DVD provides commentary from national team coaches such as Bill Rose and Rick Walker. The DVD covers open water swimming drills and skills, drafting, feeding, starts, finishes, buoy turns, setting up an open water race and safety.
Before there was Petar Stoychev who just won the last eight consecutive FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix titles, there was Paul Asmuth who was the dominant professional marathon swimming during the 1980’s and an inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame.
"We had just put in two long, hard workouts totaling about 22,000 yards [a little over 20,000 meters]. We were exhausted. Then Mark told us that we had to go 10 x 75’s on 45 seconds before we could get out." [note: approximately equivalent to a 47-second pace in a 25-meter pool]
The video, currently in post-production, was shot at the USA Swimming National Open Water Select Camp and the Open Water Festival that included the National 5K and 10K Championships and Florida Junior Olympic meet in Ft. Myers, Florida. 
John Dussliere, coach of Olympian marathon swimmer Mark Warkentin, and Jay Thomas, a FINA-certified official, gave a 2-hour open water swimming presentation at the Southern California Swimming Fall Clinic to 175 officials, coaches and parents. 
At the annual USA Swimming and US Masters Swimming conventions in Atlanta this week, important meetings on the future of open water swimming were held.
Live updates from the floor and hallways of the USA Swimming annual convention in Atlanta will be provided via Twitter - especially as it pertains to open water swimming. The agenda of this September 23-28 convention is posted here. To register, go to Twitter - and look under Olympic 10K Marathon Swim.
