Yes, there are plenty of horror stories about competitive, elite, and age group open water swimmers experiencing extreme physicality in open water swimming competitions. [This article will not address the physicality in the sports of triathlons or lifeguard competitions.]
The injuries experienced by competitive swimmers exist in abundance including these cases:
- dislocated shoulder (see Marcel Schouten below)
- chipped tooth (e.g., Christine Jennings)
- torn cornea (e.g., see Chad Ho below)
- broken rib (e.g., Micha Burden-Shaw)
- broken finger
- deep, long scratches
- bruises
- punches (e.g., John Flanagan)
But swimmers can avoid extreme physicality in local, national, and international competitions in myriad ways:
- Let the alpha swimmers sprint to the first buoy. Wait a bit (it can be less than 30 seconds), and casually start your swim. If you have to wait 10, 20, 30 seconds, you can avoid the mad scramble in the water and enjoy clear water at the start, around the buoys, and throughout the course to the finish.
- Swim next to a friend or someone of your same speed with a similar mindset. You can swim parallel to your swim buddy and enjoy clear water from start to finish.
- Swim wide of the turn buoys. Even if you have to swim an extra 10 meters around buoys, you can swim unrestricted and unconstrained.
- Swim wide of the main pack. Even if you are not taking the exact shortest or fastest line from point to point, you can enjoy swimming without worrying about the elbows, feet, and hands of other swimmers.
- If someone is swimming into you, just slow down or stop. The alternative is to get into an altercation, either inadvertently or not. Slowing down, moving over, or stopping is probably what you would do in a running race or a cycling race or even on the highway in a car if someone were veering into you.
- Swim on the outside of the pack, preferably breathing towards the pack.
You can see how many swimmers let the alpha swimmers go first in the annual King and Queen of the Sea race in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:
Unless you are highly competitive, want to win your age group, aiming for the overall title, break a record, or want to improve on your best time, you can just sit back at the start and casually stroll into the water (a la the swimmers shown below in the Newport Beach Pier-to-Pier Swim in Southern California).
Extreme instances of injuries in competitive open water swimming races:
Dislocated Shoulder
The dislocated shoulder that Marcel Schouten (shown above on left) experienced in the 2016 USA Swimming National Open Water Championships was caused when the Dutch swimmer was pulled back during the race so hard that he heard something pop in his shoulder and felt immediate pain. He stopped and pulled himself out because he knew his body was injured.
Torn Cornea
Chad Ho (shown above on right) was the youngest male competitor in the inaugural 2008 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Beijing and a nominee for the World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year, but his road to the Olympics and a world championships medalist could have been derailed early in his career.
Ho truly had to call upon his competitive spirit in 2008. Up with the leaders in lead pack during the first 2008 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim qualifying swim in Spain, the 17-year-old was kicked in the eye so hard that he got his cornea scratched. The blow was so hard with the heel of a foot of a competitor that he quickly fell out of contention from the top tier to 34th. As he finished with a swollen and injured eye, Ho couldn’t shed a tear as his Olympic dreams evaporated in an instant.
There was a second chance for the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in a qualifying swim a few months before the Olympics, but Ho was told to stay still in a darkened room for weeks until his wounds had a chance to heal. As he kept still lying in a bed in a darkened room, Ho only had a chance to focus on his mental training. Physical work and training were out of the question.
But Ho emerged from his dark room hungrier for the experience.
In the second qualifying race, Ho found himself uncharacteristically down towards the back of a tight pack of 15 swimmers around the last turn buoy. Calling upon reserves and the mental fortitude that he had built up lying in a room for weeks, Ho turned on the jets and the tables of his fortune, sprinting to fourth and guaranteeing his spot in the 2008 Olympics.
Punches Thrown
At the 2001 FINA World Championships, a group of elite swimmers came sprinting into the finish near the Fukuoka Dome in Japan. Yevgeny Bezruchenko and Vladimir Dyatchin of Russia, John Flanagan of the USA, Fabio Venturini of Italy, and Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria all had an excellent shot to win the gold medal.
With the sun shining right in their goggles, it was hard to see exactly where to go, but the six men were in a tight pack in choppy waters.
Venturini had made an earlier move to overcome the early leaders, including Stéphane Lecat of France and Mark Saliba of Australia. After the 7.5 km mark, the head referee started to blow repeated warning whistles as the men were struggling with each other. Samuele Pampana of Italy was given a yellow card. With 300 meters to go, Pampana was given a second card for punching and was disqualified. As the swimmers entered the breakwater, Flanagan was docked with a fist and was essentially taken out of a podium position as Bezruchenko (2:01:04) swam to gold, Dyatchin (2:01:06) got the silver, Venturini (2:01:11) received the bronze as the dazed Flanagan (2:01:16) fell back to fourth, and Stoychev finished fifth (2:01:22).
© 2023 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
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