Swam on the local swim team for a couple years back in high school. I did Butterfly and Freestyle (shorter distances). I was reasonably good but I’m not at the Olympics and I live in Canada so how good could I be, right?
I won a lot more Butterfly Races than freestyle but I think that’s mainly because very few people actually know how to do the Butterfly.
I swam competitively as a kid for several years. I still have a few trophies around the place somewhere. I held a backstroke record for about five minutes until the guy in the next semi-final broke it. He broke it again in the final.
I also swam a race that has lived in the memory of all who saw it. At the high school district championships the butterfly swimmer from our school in my age group had been taken ill and our sports master asked if anyone knew how to swim butterfly. I used to do a few strokes now and then while doing laps, so I volunteered to race, after all it was only 50m.
We dived in and I was good for about 5 strokes and then I started to flounder. I felt like I was swimming on the spot. The rest of the field cruised away and I just kept splashing onward like a less elegant version of Eric the Eel from Sydney 2000. The officials were yelling at me to get out of the pool because I was delaying things but I was determined to finish. The other swimmers had already left the pool and they in fact started the next heat as I was approaching the wall. As soon as I touched two officials grabbed my hands and pulled me out.
And the bastards didn’t even time me but according to eyewitness accounts it took several minutes. There were some reports of illness brought on by lengthy hysterical laughter.
The odd thing is I have no idea why I was so determined to finish, normally I am sure I would have happily just quit.
Lifeguard, breast, free.
I was fairly horrible at racing, except for the relays. For some reason I managed not to lose any ground for the team and on occasion to gain some, which never happened in individual races. I always blamed my terrible vision (I was afraid to wear contacts in the pool. During the lifeguard course we weren’t even allowed to wear goggles.)
My favorite races were the stupid ones we did in the lifeguard classes–the wet sweatshirt relay, for instance. (Pull sweatshirt over suit. Swim lap. Remove sweatshirt, pass it to next competitor who must put it on, etc.)
I’ll be your backstroker! At my peak I swam 100 back in 1:02*. (Once, in a fast pool drafting a 6’5" powerhouse dude in the lane next to me I swam 1:00:98)
My fly and breast are mediocre. My free is terrible. If I am in, say, Lake Tahoe and want to get back to the boat quickly, I’ll flip on my back because it’s faster. (And I don’t have to see the yawning emptiness under me, either)
When I was three my parents took me for swim lessons. When they asked us to put our face in the water, I sat on the bottom of the pool. I was quickly passed up to intermediate, then advanced. Then I was introduced to the swim coach, and at 5 I was competing. I raced through high school, then senior year broke my leg a week before States. As I had no intention of competing in college (I’d devoted enough of my life to the sport), I let myself get out of shape. Then I tore my rotator cuff, and I haven’t competed since. (I do now swim a little crooked because of the shoulder). I have been a lifegaurd and kiddie swim teacher.
I love and miss swimming-- I don’t do it enough, getting pool time around my demanding job is hard, and the pool-less company gym is both right in the building and free.
*I’m a girl.
Whoah. 1:02 backstroke is fast.* please don’t beat me up for mocking backstrokers
I still swim a few meets here and there as a Masters swimmer. I have always known how to swim, never took lessons really. Our high school had a swim team but I didn’t join until I was a junior as there were a couple of people on the team I didn’t think I liked. Then two friends joined so I did. Made 4th in the county in the 200 IM.
Then in college when I went for the pre-college stuff I wanted to join the team. The coach said I wasn’t fast enough, this was at a AAA school and they didn’t have a full team. Turns out the coach was just a dick. I regret now not joining anyway.
Then in 2000 I was given a pass to the local pool so I started to swim just to get in some sort of shape. I’ve kept up with it for the most part since then. Four years ago I did qualify for the World Masters meet in Italy so I went.
I like doing free, fly and IM. I’m ok in back and breast. I can’t do sprints at all, my 100 splits are almost like doing 2 50s back to back. I enjoy doing the 200, 400/500 free, 200 fly, 200 and 400 IM.
I think we might have enough people now to make a team. Now all we have to do is to find a bunch of 8 year olds to challenge.
If memory serves me right, I sent a state time or two in the backstroke, so 'rigsby, you’re saved.
Yeah, I swam all the way through grade school, high school and dabbled a tiny bit in college.
I was also the poor bastard with the abnormal stamina. I swam the 1650s in all the swim meets.
If memory serves me right, I sent a state time or two in the backstroke, so 'rigsby, you’re saved.
Yeah, I swam all the way through grade school, high school and dabbled a tiny bit in college.
I swam competitively from age 8 to the end of high school. 100 Fly, 200 IM, and diving (to throw in the oddball event). Also a lifeguard and swimming instructor all through high school.
Not much of a swimmer these days, but I can still do the butterfly when called upon.
Gah. Can’t edit.
I swam competively in high school for three years (10th-12th grade). (My family moved to a city in Illinois in the summer between 9th and 10th grade, and my new high school had a swim team.)
At the swim coach’s urging, I swam in a local swim club for a few months before the season started, and made the team. I got my 100-yard freestyle time down from about 1:10 to 0:59.67 by the end of my first year at the Conference meet. It was a big deal for me to finally go under 1:00 that first year.
By my senior year (this was in the mid-80s), I was on the Varsity team, and was consistently a top 3 finisher in swim meets. I made it as far as Sectionals in the 100 Free and the 4 x 100 Free relay.
I’ve kept swimming since then to keep in shape. I’ve done a few open water swims, too. I did a 1.6-mile bay swim twice about 10 years ago, and just a couple of weeks ago, I did a 1-mile lake swim at a Boy Scout camp. (I’m a Scout leader.) I finished the swim over 7 minutes behind the next finisher (another adult), and lapped several of the Scouts. 
I swam a bit from 10 - 16 back in the olden days but never got very competitive. I blame the shortage of pools within easy horse and buggy distance. Still doing an occasional sprint tri.
Now I’m a swim parent. You can find me in my white shirt, timing at smaller meets or with a lawn chair and a book camped out in a quiet place at the larger meets. So, I’ll volunteer to time the future doper event.
I swam all four years of high school and did springboard diving for three. I was a better diver than a swimmer, probably because of doing gymnastics from 10 to about 13, and off and on for a couple of years or so after. I’m pretty proud that I actually contributed more points in combined meets than most of the stars of the team. Junior year, coach said that I won at least two meets for them because of the points I brought in from diving, and from placing in most of my events for swimming.
I was never a great swimmer, but not all that bad either. Middle of the pack most of the time, except for distance events like the 500. I fucking hated that race. I was almost always the slowest finisher, and I swear that the coach had me do it so that my 100 free and 200 IM times would go up. That, and no one else would do the bloody thing if they could wrangle a spot for other events. He had to enter someone for it or lose the points. I’d often place, but I don’t think I ever came in first for anything except sprints and a couple of IMs.
My main events were 50, 100, and 500 free, 200 IM, 100 breast, and I’d almost always do a freestyle or medley relay, with occasional entries in other strokes because I was pretty versatile. Back is my least favorite stroke because you never know when you’re going to catch a wave in the face instead of a gulp of air. You’re able to breathe more often than with other strokes, but you have less control over your airway. Sucks. That, and doing turns is a pain in the ass. Gotta count strokes past the flags, hope your timing is right and that you’re pulling as hard as you think you are, and you’ll still probably whack your hand, bonk your head, or almost miss the damn wall at least a couple of times that season.
I stopped swimming after high school, but kept diving for the first couple of years of college. I only did springboard diving. Platform diving facilities are pretty rare, and truthfully, considering how badly you can hurt yourself from only a 3 m board, I don’t think I’d really want to repeatedly jump off a 5 or 10 m platform. The university I transferred to to finish my degree didn’t even have a pool, so I didn’t have much of a choice about keeping with either sport there.
I think the reason I quit swimming competitively was because, honestly, I wasn’t very good at it. It sucks to be working your ass off and hardly ever beating anyone else at it. I never had a prayer of being one of the big dogs since I’m only average height, with smaller than average feet and hands. Besides, training for long swims or runs is painful and boring.
I’m actually pretty shit at endurance activities, though I have explosive strength and am consequently pretty fast. It’s kind of ironic that it took me years to realize that I probably could have excelled at other sports, but stuck with swimming where, despite having a relatively early start, I would never be a top contender. If I’d done track, I’d probably have stuck with it longer. I hated team sports — still do — so even though I probably would have been a great running back, I don’t think I’d have tried for football, or soccer even.
I’m starting to work some swims into my training schedule now that I’m serious about getting in great shape and staying that way, but I’m not going to be doing any 1,500–2,000 m training sessions like I used to do in high school. I’ve got better things to spend a couple of hours on than doing laps, so it’ll just be an adjunct to my other workouts.
I, too, used to swim over a mile every day without complaint. I believe I still have a league JV record in the 50 at 24.1. I think my best was 23 high. I moved onto lifeguarding and eventually spent 10 summers with the East Bay Parks at several lakes. Fun times. My last swim workout was probably an 800, but I like to swim in Lake Michigan.
I swam for 3 years in high school and 4 years in college. I was bad at everything but breaststroke (1:06 for 100 yard breaststroke).
I can do the 50m dog-paddle…and I float real good. 
It was short course, though (25 yard pool). Times are faster.
Gives me a giggle, though, that people at the Olympics in the slow lanes (ie, not the people in the pool with Kirsty Coventry) track times north of a minute.
The world record is 58.77 in a 50m pool.
The NJ state high school record (which was about as high as I ever strived for) is 54.33.
Such is the power of two extra flipturns.
Can we add a free diving event to our competition? I’m shite at traditional strokes but I swim like an alligator underwater and can hold my breath for nearly 3.5 min. I know that’s nothing compared to the competitors, but it seems to work well for lobstering and spearfishing. 
I could train up!
The 50m pools are also about 10% longer over all so times are about that much more as well. As a guess your 1:02 would probably be around 1:10-1:12, which is still a really good time, I know I couldn’t make that in back, or fly.
Personally I like doing short course meters more then long course or yards. I have good turns, but yards feels a bit too short now a days as we practice in a meters pool. I think I really need to get back to swimming as well, I’ve taken off all summer.
Well, it looks like we really do have enough for a Doper swim team. And since it seems we’ll be having open water competitors, I shall magnanimously expand our purview into other events as well.
… I suppose I should’ve invited the divers, too, eh?