What is the worst swimming-related experience you have ever had?

I think this honor belongs to when I was a youngin (well more so than now) and was swimming for a club. I was about 9 or 10 years old at the time, and we were swimming LCM in an outdoor pool. Anyway, I had contracted the flu or some nasty stomach virus and begged my parents to not make me go to morning practice. Of course, they thought I was just trying to get in a day of sleeping past 6am, so they made me go. Needless to say, hard sets and swilling gatorade didn't exactly help my stomach situation. I ended up getting out about 20 minutes into the workout, running to the bathroom, and being horribly horribly sick...ruining a suit and part of my dignity...

My very first triathlon. I had trained and trained for the swim. Half way into the 1k swim, I turned at a bouy and headed in towards the shore. I was making really good time, and I was almost all the way in, and I noticed that there weren't any other swimmers around me. I thought, this is either really good or really bad. It was really bad. I started to notice that the red marker bouys weren't lining up with the finish area (marked by a bunch of balloons.) Then saw this guy in a kayak coming towards me to ask if I needed help. I looked around, and remembered that there were three bouys I needed to swim around, rather than two. I swam back to the third bouy and ended up swimming about 400 yards further than everyone else. Two months later, I swam the same course 8 minutes faster. The nice part was that I was so far behind coming out of the swim, that I got to pass a lot of people on the bike leg and was not too humiliated in the run.

My first Masters meet two years ago, after 25 years away from competition. I had no idea what kind of times to enter, so for the 200 free I "conservatively" guessed a 1:53, which placed me in the fastest heat. When I finished in 2:07, the other swimmers in my heat had already hit the showers. At least my kids thought I'd done well (I think they were being kind).

This was back in high school, many years ago, has more to do w/ diving than swimming though. I needed to practice my somersault off the diving board since I kept either over or under rotating off the diving board. My coach made me stand at the end of the diving board to do a standing flip. I really didn't want to because I didn't think I could. Sure enough after several minutes of standing there contemplating, I did & *SMACK* hit the back of my head on the diving board. Needless to say he never made me do that again. It was scary & hurt like hell but I made it through w/out any problems.

Worst swimming related story? I was at a beach in the Basque region of France with my girlfriend when we got caught in a rip tide taking us out to sea. I knew I could make it out by swimming parallel to the shore until we were clear of the tide and then make it to shore. My girlfriend was tiring quickly though and didn't think she could swim any longer, but was confident she could float along with the the tide. The lifeguards had just packed up and left so we knew we were in this on our own. I decided I'd swim back to shore and grab my surfboard for her to use. I swam the quickest 50 meters of my life against the tide, ran 50 meters for my board and then back to the water. When I got back in the water I couldn't see her floating any longer. I know it must have only been 3-5 seconds but it felt like an eternity before I heard a voice calling to me from the shore. She had been fortunate enough to get lifted to the shore by 3 or 4 large waves. I've never been as terrified in my life as I was durring those 3-5 seconds.

Originally posted by zestyfrog7 I am from Wisconsin, born and raised 22 years, but I live in Southwest Florida now. I was at practice a week ago on Labor day in the morning. I was swimming along making great time on a 500 freestyle when I got to the middle of the lane and there right in front of my face was the largest bug I had ever seen. It was swimming straight at my face with these hug pinchers out front. I still am not sure how I stopped and turned around so fast and swam my butt to the end of the pool and jumped out. Coach was laughing so hard and I was scared out of my mind and trying to catch my breath. Turns out it was a bug they call the electric light bug or a toe-biter, aka giant water bug. It was about 3 inches long, 1 inch wide and I was told they are aggressive and will come after you. Creeped me out for the rest of the day and now whenever I am at practice I am looking out for bugs. Here is a link with what these bugs look like, the picture is the actual size of this thing. creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/.../belostomatid01.htm Yup. A giant water bug, and they can deliver a rather nasty bite. But they're more interested in other bugs and even small fish. FYi, they can make good soup.

When I was about 6 or 7 years old, my family did a vacation at a lake in upstate New York called Schroon Lake. The week before that I had just completed (but failed) the beginner red-cross swimming course. In spite of that failure, I still thought I was capable enough to jump off the diving board at the hotel pool. My father and mother (who could not swim) had the 8mm movie camera going. I jumped, and came up right away, but immediately started to panic and flail. They kept the camera rolling. Eventually another guest jumped in (there were no lifeguards) and hauled me out. We have it all on film. Now it's a family heirloom. That same week my sister and I were playing in the lake. We had our blow-up life-rings on, so no threat of drowning. We started kicking and found ourselves moving away from shore. We couldn't figure out how to turn around. We shouted to mom and dad who were laying on a blanket on the shore. "Just kick with one leg and you'll turn around..." was their answer. Try as we might, we just kept goung farther and farther out. My dad tried to wade out to up until it was too deep. They had to get a boat to get us. You'd think after that week I would have ended up so traumatized by water that I would have never learned to swim. I guess somehow I got over it!

This one stands out for me... I was at a USS invitational somewhere in Tennessee when I was in H.S. Being a backstroker, I noticed that when I warmed up that the flags at the opposite end of the timers were a little off... but I adjusted properly and got out of the pool. For my 100 back... I was ready... I had made the state cut at a previous meet and I wanted to go even faster this time. Off we went... I got ready for my first flip turn... and when I turned onto my stomach, there was the wall... IT WAS TOO CLOSE... had to flip... and I slammed both of my feet right into the gutters (right on the heel). I could hear the bang underwater... I could hardly kick during the rest of my event. When I got out, my coach was waiting right there for me... I took one look at him and just cried. I looked back out at the flags- and they were completely crooked! I'd say that one end was like 2 or 3 feet shorter than the other! (I had warmed up on the other side of the pool). I told the meet referee, but he just stared at me and didn't do anything about it. :mad:

Okay, now I have two after reading that last one. 1. When I was in high school, during water polo practise one day I sprained my ankle while doing a flip turn. The coach made me "walk it off", thinking it wasn't bad. I couldn't walk on it for two days afterwards. 2. In college, also during water polo practise of course. I was jumping into the pool and turned around while jumping. I hit my chin on the pool deck, splitting it open. I asked the coach if it was bad, and he just said, "Go to the trainer". When I looked in the mirror in the locker room I could not believe what I had done. I missed practise for the next week and a half.

I am from Wisconsin, born and raised 22 years, but I live in Southwest Florida now. I was at practice a week ago on Labor day in the morning. I was swimming along making great time on a 500 freestyle when I got to the middle of the lane and there right in front of my face was the largest bug I had ever seen. It was swimming straight at my face with these hug pinchers out front. I still am not sure how I stopped and turned around so fast and swam my butt to the end of the pool and jumped out. Coach was laughing so hard and I was scared out of my mind and trying to catch my breath. Turns out it was a bug they call the electric light bug or a toe-biter, aka giant water bug. It was about 3 inches long, 1 inch wide and I was told they are aggressive and will come after you. Creeped me out for the rest of the day and now whenever I am at practice I am looking out for bugs. Here is a link with what these bugs look like, the picture is the actual size of this thing. creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/.../belostomatid01.htm