Worst thing during swim meet?

One of my teammates (male) was wearing a body suit (the kind that zips up the back and goes to the knees) at an outdoor meet in August. Naturally, it was pretty warm, so while he wasn't swimming, he unzipped it and pulled the top down to his waist. The meet finished up with the 200 free relay, and he was swimming anchor, and he swam it for all he was worth -- even as his suit crept farther and farther down his hips and exposed more and more, um, well, traditionally unexposed skin. This is because he forgot to pull the top back up! By the time he finished, he was pretty much mooning the whole pool. The best part was watching the crowd reaction. It was like watching The Wave, as he worked his way down the course--when people realized what was happening, their jaws just dropped. To his credit, he got out of the pool laughing about it, and commented he was just glad it wasn't a medley relay with him swimming backstroke! Another teammate (female) took a shower in the men's locker room in Indianapolis. Obviously this didn't happen while swimming, but it was immediately after. She had come to do a workout in the warmup pool on the distance day, when there weren't many people there. Without her glasses, she couldn't decipher the international symbols on the door (in her defense, they were pretty androgynous-looking symbols, and even WITH your glasses they were hard to decipher), and went into the wrong locker room. She stripped down, showered, and went walking through the locker room to retrieve her clothes. She said to herself, "Hmm, I could have sworn the lockers were all yellow, but now they're orange." After searching fruitlessly for her clothes for several minutes she finally stumbled across the area with the urinals and realized she was in the wrong place, whereupon she struggled back into her suit as quickly as she could and got the hell out of dodge. To her knowledge, no one else came into that locker room while she was in there. If a man DID come in and saw her, then he is quite a gentleman, because he obviously kept quiet about what he saw. I myself have managed to keep my suit on and use the correct locker room at all meets. The only embarrassing moment (at a swim meet) that comes to mind is the time I was running to get to my relay (I know, I shouldn't have done that), slipped on the deck, and went splat in front of everyone. Now, embarrassing moments at the USMS convention are another matter ...

Ok, I could not come up with an original "you know you are a swimmer...", so here is the worst thing that ever happened to me in a swim meet: My suit string broke in the middle of a 500 free. I couldn't stop because it was a college dual meet and the team needed the points. So, I finished the race and got a big applause at the end. The turns were the worst, I had to push off with my legs apart. Actually, the suit probably stayed on (somewhat) because it was a size 26 (those were the days). Henry

Way back in high school, I had a team mate who dived in for the last leg of a 400 IM relay just as the flyer was completing her first 50. Landed just in front of her... surprised them both.

A couple of years ago during a local Master's meet at an affluent high school, some one enter the locker room with bolt cutters and clipped off 13 of our locks and stole our wallets. All told they got over $1000 (plus credit cards, driver license, pictures, etc.) from us. Except for a couple of pictures nothing was ever recovered and no one was ever caught.

A friend of my sister-in-law was telling my daughter that the first (and only) time he competed in swimming he threw up in the pool. Couldn't wait for the locker room I guess. Anyway years later he won a bronze medal in the olympics----in diving.;)

I don't know if this is the worst thing that ever happend to me, but... (certainly, worth mentioning) at SCY Nationals in Indianapolis, I was doing my pre-race warmup. When I got out of the pool, I stood there for a few minutes watching some of the heats that were going on. I noticed a few women looking at me ( giving me the up and down, you know) and I thought "cool!". However, when I went to check my suit (you know, check the string, make sure you're not sporting a wedgie) I noticed that my suit had split completely, showing my dark side to the world. I gave the women a glance back, realizing what they were REALLY checking out, who were then, totally embarassed that I noticed them noticing my be-hind. But no more embarassed than I was. I did manage to get my 'backup' suit on prior to my race, but I had to walk past (what felt like everyone who was there) people to get up to the stands. :rolleyes: Joe

As a kid, I swam my first Mile at the old Casino Pool in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. It was a neat old 55-yard salt-water pool that sat a bid closer to A1A then the ISHOF currently sits. Well, I had a great case of the Eagles (butterflies time a zillion) going...and I puked on this really nice man who was going to be my timer. I felt really bad and everyone in the surround area said, "ewww that kid puked on that man." I went on to swim my first mile in a chlorine salt-water pool.... and could not see straight for the next two hours.

Most of my oopsies have been from a meet operations/management perspective, since I do more of that now. There was the time I was running a college dual meet, doing the pre-meet introductions and announcements and went to play the national anthem on the CD player. Unfortunately, the CD player had bee switched to "Shuffle", so the first track (USA Anthem) didn't play, and we instead got the anthem of some other country. There was a time recently I was running a masters meet, doing pre-meet intros. I had a new wireless headset microphone on, and the national anthem was playing (correct country this time). I was in the timing booth, and a friend of mine was still lap swimming in the middle of the pool, directly under the flag. She was the only one still swimming. I leaned to another friend who was in the booth with me to make a snide comment that she was still swimming. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that my headset mic was still live. Same meet recently, I was working the meet so hard, and was at the pool real late each night fixing technical problems and back so early for a couple days, getting only a couple hours of sleep, and not eating or drinking enough, that I ended up passing out in the timing booth. I was doing electronic timing, results processing, and announcing, so I was the only one in the booth. Fortunately, I signalled the referee to hold up the next heat for a minute or two. Witnesses who were there will confirm that I was only out for about 15 seconds, and that we only held up the meet for about 4-5 minutes total. Timeline is everything, you know. -Rick

Couldn't resist adding my two cents' worth to this. Here goes. 1. My first meet was this past December, having been encouraged to attend by a teammate. So, before I left home, I doubled-checked to make sure I had and even spares of goggles, suits, shampoo, shorts, T shirt, etc. Pretty good so far, I thought. Got to the locker room, changed and was ready to go to the pool. On deck, I reached for my towel. Nope! I forgot it! My teammate, thank God, brought a spare. Beats drying oneself off under the hair dryer or using your spare suit. 2. My second meet was a bit stranger, though. I made sure I packed EVERYTHING. No problems, so far. However, I moved up to the blocks, anticipating my next event. I waited for the signal to step up, then did. I felt strange, noticing that I was the only person standing there. So, I stepped off (actually I almost slipped off) and asked an official what was up. I was told I could get back on the block and start at the signal. I started and ended up doing my heat in a one-man race. There I was, with perhaps 80 or so pairs of eyes watching. (Wished they looked elsewhere.) It seems that a number of others missed the same heat, so they were permitted to compete, too. 3. My third meet had a different twist. Not having too much experience diving off the blocks as my "home pool" doesn't have them, I got myself into a bit of trouble. During my first event, the left goggle slid up and back into place over my eye lid during my start. That was bad enough, but I lost a contact lens, to boot, upon entering the water. I had a spare at home and ordered a replacement. Before I received the bill for the replacement, I LOST that lens, too, but not at the pool. Who said swimming was an inexpensive sport? 4. Then there was the time ... aw heck! Enough!

My first ever race in a Masters swim meet: 100 M Free, Long Course. My goggles came off at the start (of course) and the pool was murky, and I was unfamiliar with the pool anyway, and the turn end was the deep end, and the water was really deep, a lot deeper than my home pool, and I could hardly see the lane markings, and I was really, really nervous going into the turn, and when I finally got to the wall, I misjudged and flipped a tad late. This resulted in me hitting my butt on the pool deck (OK, I flipped more than just a tad late). Fortunately, my pride was hurt far more than my rear end. I just sort of slid back into the water and pushed off and finished the race. Never have liked that pool since then.