Come on, Somebody Please Invite Laszlo Cseh to the Duel!!!

The Duel in the Pool between the U.S. and a "European select team" is scheduled to take place on December 18-19, 2009 in Manchester, England (the site of the 2008 SC World Championships). The meet will be in SC meters. The U.S. team has been announced and it includes Ryan Lochte, Michael Phelps, Aaron Peirsol and Tyler Clary. The European team has not yet been announced, but it is expected that it will consist of swimmers from Germany, Italy and Great Britain.

What I don't understand is why Laszlo (Laci) Cseh was not invited. He apparently wants to swim in the Duel. http://www.swimnews.com/News/view/7311

The European team has not yet been announced and Laci is Hungarian, which is part of the European Union. He definitely should be invited!

Laci is one of the best swimmers in the world, top 5 for sure. He won 3 individual silver medals in the Beijing Olympics (200/400 IM and 200 fly). He won a silver (200IM) & bronze (400 IM) in Rome this past summer despite being deathly ill and spending time in the hospital during the week of the meet.

Even though Laci has huge talent and is one of the best swimmers in the world, he only has the opportunity to race Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte once a year at most, and sometimes not for 2 years. This is not right. These swimmers are in the prime of their careers and they should be afforded as many opportunities as possible to race, not only for them but for fans who love to watch them.

A 200 IM race with Phelps, Lochte, Cseh and Clary would be monumental. Same with a 200 fly race with Phelps, Cseh and Clary and a 400 IM race with Lochte Cseh and Clary. Cseh wants to be there, the publicity for swimming would be great, and I'm sure Phelps and Lochte would relish the opportunity to race him. Why not invite him?

The article in http://www.swimnews.com/ linked above stated that Cseh was not invited because "Talks between LEN, the European body, and USA Swimming did not result in any agreements, with European calendar clashes and the varying programmes of a large number of nations among the key obstacles to progress."

The swimming world gets way too bogged down with nationalism and semantics and rules. World peace is not at stake. Yes the Duel is about national teams competing against each other, but in order to generate interest and fan support, the best swimmers should be invited. It sounds like Laci would have made the Duel a priority even if there was another meet he could have participated in during those two days.

I keep hearing that the swimming world wants swimming to be relevant and interesting beyond the Olympics. The swimming world needs to be more open minded so wonderful opportunities like this are not lost.