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October 7, 2007 Dear Swimmers, Coaches, and Parents, Welcome future Olympians! The next couple of years will prove to be exciting and hectic as the 2009 date approaches. First of all, new changes include personnel shifts and the new swimming manager position has become my responsibility. My name is Seda Ozdemir and I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the new swimming manager for US Deaf Swimming organization. For those of you who do not know me, I was honored to represent the United States in the Deaflympics in Italy and Australia in 2001 and 2005, respectively. I was selected as the captain of the women’s team and was able to demonstrate my leadership skills in leading the team to success in the competitions. Recently, I was privileged to serve as an assistant coach for the team of four men and six women with the head coach Bill Snape at the World Deaf Swimming Championships held in Taipei, Taiwan. In addition to many years of swimming, I believe that my swimming knowledge, hard work, and determination have provided me with the necessary skills to contribute to the success of this organization. However, I am very excited about my prospects for making US Deaf swimming a stronger organization. I am now given the wonderful opportunity to coordinate many new projects and create changes to make this organization a better experience. Our current main goals include finalizing plans for a trials meet prior to the Deaflympics, continuing to identity and contact deaf swimmers to be added to the database, and providing coach selection criteria to all coaches in database as well as team selection criteria to all athletes in preparation for the Deaflympics 2009. Most importantly, with the Deaflympics 2009 coming up so soon, recruiting needs to be initiated in order for the USA team to be finalized within the next year. Selection for the 2009 Deaflympics Games criteria and the trials meet minimum qualifying time standards along with other information regarding the Deaflympics can be seen at www.unitedstatesdeafswimming.org as they become available. One of the most important requirements of US Deaf Swimming is that all deaf swimmers wanting to be considered a part of the team or to be a member of USDS must be USA Swimming members. Please continue to check the above website for new information posted. I would be more than happy to provide any information or answer any questions you have. Do not hesitate to contact me anytime at SedaOzdemir44@gmail.com. I look forward to getting to know you and working with you. Sincerely, Seda Ozdemir USDS Swimming manager |