Controversy continues

There are certainly reasons why a certain amount of fat is likely to be less of a detriment in swimming than in running: 1) In running, fat puts extra load on the joints, increasing the likelihood of injury if you do a lot of running. This isn't true for swimming. 2) In swimming, fat tends to increase bouyancy, which makes it easier to master certain aspects of swimming. I can think of a triathlete I've coached who has had serious problems mastering freestyle breathing because he rides so low in the water due to his lean build. Bouyancy isn't a factor when you're running. 3) The body can develop fat as a means of insulation for swimmers who do a lot of swimming in relatively cold water. I remember seeing a program about a woman who swam the Bering Strait, and who had spent time beforehand acclimating herself to swimming in cold water, and it was found that she had developed a thin layer of fat all over her body. 4) If there are more female swimmers than male swimmers who are fat, this may be related to the embarassment factor. A guy who is fat is likely to have a lot of resistance toward being seen in a swim brief (which until recently was the standard swimsuit for male competitive swimmers). And I'm not at all sure that the increased prevalance of jammers is going to make much of a difference. I can think of one boy on the swim team at the YMCA where I do my workouts who is on the fat side. I've seen him in both briefs and jammers, and frankly, he looks fatter in jammers than in briefs because the jammers pinch in some of the fat, making it bulge out more noticeably over the top of the suit. Our bodies certainly try to adapt to the sports we do, although their ability to do this is limited. There's a teenage boy I know who used to play football in the fall and do swimming the rest of the year, and he put on a lot of weight every year during football season and then took it off afterward. The weight fluctuations ultimately led him to give up swimming. But I don't think that playing basketball is likely to make you any taller. But there is also a natural selection process at work in every sport that becomes more pronounced as you reach the elite levels. If your physiology isn't suited to a sport and you can't adapt, you're ultimately likely to give up that sport and to look for a sport at which you can excell.

There are certainly reasons why a certain amount of fat is likely to be less of a detriment in swimming than in running: 1) In running, fat puts extra load on the joints, increasing the likelihood of injury if you do a lot of running. This isn't true for swimming. 2) In swimming, fat tends to increase bouyancy, which makes it easier to master certain aspects of swimming. I can think of a triathlete I've coached who has had serious problems mastering freestyle breathing because he rides so low in the water due to his lean build. Bouyancy isn't a factor when you're running. 3) The body can develop fat as a means of insulation for swimmers who do a lot of swimming in relatively cold water. I remember seeing a program about a woman who swam the Bering Strait, and who had spent time beforehand acclimating herself to swimming in cold water, and it was found that she had developed a thin layer of fat all over her body. 4) If there are more female swimmers than male swimmers who are fat, this may be related to the embarassment factor. A guy who is fat is likely to have a lot of resistance toward being seen in a swim brief (which until recently was the standard swimsuit for male competitive swimmers). And I'm not at all sure that the increased prevalance of jammers is going to make much of a difference. I can think of one boy on the swim team at the YMCA where I do my workouts who is on the fat side. I've seen him in both briefs and jammers, and frankly, he looks fatter in jammers than in briefs because the jammers pinch in some of the fat, making it bulge out more noticeably over the top of the suit. Our bodies certainly try to adapt to the sports we do, although their ability to do this is limited. There's a teenage boy I know who used to play football in the fall and do swimming the rest of the year, and he put on a lot of weight every year during football season and then took it off afterward. The weight fluctuations ultimately led him to give up swimming. But I don't think that playing basketball is likely to make you any taller. But there is also a natural selection process at work in every sport that becomes more pronounced as you reach the elite levels. If your physiology isn't suited to a sport and you can't adapt, you're ultimately likely to give up that sport and to look for a sport at which you can excell.