Many LSCs have recently stopped posting the hy-tek meet result files. Some have gone so far as to threaten coaches for sharing them. Because of this, meet results may be coming to an end on MySwimIO unless parents and coaches speak up with their coaches, LSC boards and with USA Swimming.

MySwimIO and Swimcloud use the hy-tek meet result files to import result data into our site. It is the best and most complete source available, but over the last week some LSCs have removed them completely from their websites and are only posting the PDF files, which no one parses because they are extremely problematic to parse.

Again, NO ONE parses results from pdf files. This action by LSCs has only rewarded bad actors and punished sites like SwimCloud and MySwimIO.

Prior to this, some tools were scraping USA Swimming’s website and more have resorted to doing this to get results, which is against their terms of service. We have recently partnered with USA Swimming as a 3rd team management vendor and refuse to violate their TOS.

The recent issue with meet result files stems from a statement in the LSC Affiliation Agreement, from USA Swimming, which states,

'LSC shall not publicly post files that have personally identifiable information.'

Some LSCs misinterpreted this statement and took it to mean all PII, which by their logic would include not just DOBs but names and ages.

According to the director of technology at USA Swimming, it was not the intention of USA Swimming to include names and ages as PII because those are embedded in heat sheets, psych sheets, meet mobile, score board panels at meets, PDF result files, and USA Swimming’s own website.

The sole focus of the PII concern was DOBs and as many have pointed out to Virginia, Potomac Valley, and other LSCs, DOBs can be easily removed from the hy-tek meet result files with a single button click, but so far that point as fallen on deaf ears.

Again, date of births can be easily removed from Meet Result Files. For past results, I also have a tool that can check and remove date of births from already created meet result files and re-do the checksums, so LSCs can publish those without any concern of PII.

I would love to have an open and honest conversation with LSCs concerning the PII issue. I am asking for an opportunity to discuss this with various LSC governance board members.

What can you do?

• Share your comments about MySwimIO to our email, admin@myswimio.com. I can compile comments from you, both parents and coaches, about what you like most about the site. We will keep them anonymous.

• Mobilize your team parents that use our site to contact your team coaches. Make sure they know about the site and if they use it, have them share their experience with us and your LSC governance board members

  Ask your coaches to send us the hy-tek result files using our drop-box:

  Meet Results Dropbox

• Mobilize your team parents that use our site to contact your LSC governance board members and tell them how useful the site is to you, what tools you use, etc Let them know that meet results can easily be released with date of births and that they can contact me with any questions or concerns.
• Contact USA Swimming and tell them how useful the site is to you, what tools you use, etc. Let them know that some LSCs have misinterpreted their PII statement and ask their help in rectifying this.
• Share. share and share the site some more. The more people that use and know about our site, the better chance we will be able to get results.

Thank you for your time.

Michael