Week 2 CEDO 540

The statistical mean has had an extreme impact on some kids I deal with recently.  I was fortunate enough to be able to help coach the Milwaukee Swim team entry for the U.S. Youth Games in Cocoa, Florida.  Instead of using an automatic timing system (such as a Colorado Timing System) the Youth Games used 2 timers per each lane and then the meet manager would "average" the two times and record the "averaged time" to find the place of each entrant.  Unfortunately for one of our swimmers, even though she out touched the other swimmer, one of her timers stopped the timer late.  This meant that her mean time was 0.17 seconds slower than the other swimmer.  So, according to the mean, she did not win the race.  Unfortunately, this also meant that she did not get the points a first place finish would get.  The difference between getting first and second place points in this one race was great enough that our girls ended up getting 3rd place overall in the meet.  They only missed second place by 2 points.  However, our boys won second place and had enough points for the team total points won the team a second place finish.  Kudos to my wife for a great job coaching.