Masters in the Dominican Republic has a relative short history. In the late 80's at a local age group meet a category was made for "masters age group". However, the first real participation in a sanctioned master's meet by Dominicans came at the 1993 US Long Course Nationals in Minneapolis. There, Juan Manuel Tavares and Danilo Vicioso swam to Top 10 finishes in several races. Now for the first time a group of former Dominican National Team members have been training hard and fast at the Body Shop Health Club pool in Santo Domingo. "Our team is training 5 times a week and we're doing great times in the pool," explained team leader Juan M. Tavares. The Body Shop Dominican Masters is the first organized team ever to represent the country in an international meet. Tavares concluded by saying "We're going to bring a lot of medals and records from 5º Latycar '99", The 8 member team squad is represented in the 40-44 age group with Jordi Masalles, Julio Garcia, Tancredo Aybar. In the 35 to 39 with Juan Manuel Tavares and Danilo Vicioso. And in the 30 to 34 with Marcos Diaz, Alex Ovalles, and Jose Tavares.