This new thread occurred to me while reading posts comparing Spitz to Phelps, as well as reflecting upon mortality considering heart attacks etc. In swimming we immortalize individuals or teams for various feats or contributions, but do little to preserve a feeling for subsequent generations of enthusiasts about what it was like to train and compete 'back in the day'. Just what day am I talking about? Exactly: there have been many 'days' or more properly 'eras' that can be narrowly characterized by differences in equipment, distances swum and trained, coaching methods or more widely by larger factors: world war, global depression, racial segregation, inequality of the sexes. All of these can contribute to very different experiences than what are common today to the younger swimmer; hence, 'what was it like'. I visualize a thread that continues to be added to as new people read it and remember their own experiences. As well, experience can vary with national origin, not just era. There have already been posts on this topic scattered in various threads, please feel free to copy or quote material from them to here.
Please remember that this is not about how fast a particular swimmer was, but about the conditions that defined competitive swimming of that day.
We also have a priceless resource out there: aging swimmers in their 80's or 90's who may be less likely to read or hear of this thread; why not ask them for some of their memories or impressions and pass them on to us, while we still can?
Former Member
Back in the early 60's (late teens-early 20's) Cairo, Egypt.
No goggles
50m not an official race (in any stroke)
Manual analog timekeeping
Somersault turns in the free were: approaching the wall, you turn on your back. One hand had to touch the wall. You did a back somersault ending on your stomach all tucked up and pushed off. I was a one side breather so I could this ONLY if I arrived at the wall with my right-arm (I breathe on the left). Arriving on the left arm meant an open turn.
Shaving:
Our Nationals usually took place at the end of Summer. One year (I can't remember the reason why), they were held at the start of Summer. So I shaved (like the rest of the team) and then off to Alexandria and the beaches for the Summer vacations. My girl-----friend (two separate words) who had seen me with various girlfriends (one word, separate times) and who should have known me better, asked me in an aside, "Ahmed, you can confide in me. Have you turned gay?"
Outside of the swimming community, nobody back then could conceive of a man shaving off body hair.
Just thought of it.
Back in the early 60's (in Egypt) no goggles had a positive aspect: better peripheral vision specially under water on your non-breathing side. I have always swum with a body roll and therefore could "see" competitors on either side of me all the way to the limits of visibility (according to the pool's opacity that day. Some pools were so, let's say, not clear that the only way to swim a straight line was to keep yourself equidistant from the lane ropes; bottom lines could be seen for only half (shallow) the pool.)
Did anybody ever wear that black, eye gunk that was applied to the cheeks to "prevent" glare while swimming backstroke? What a mess! I was 11 when I tried it- sigh, the days of old.
Many memories are hazy from that far back...
"hazy" eh Peter?....thats an interesting adjective you chose there I must say LOL! :thhbbb:
Newmastersswimmer
I remember the suit burns. Those were horrible. And remember how you had to use a shoelace or something to tie the straps of your tank suit together so that it didn't fall off? There was something weird about the front of the girls suits back then too, kind of like a holdover from skirts. This would have been in the early 70's, right before the racerback suits came out.
On the up side, I got to swim all of my swims outdoors in those days!
Ah.....memories....... I swam in high school in the early 80s:
high neck, rayon suits that lasted foooorrrreeevvverrrr...., lots of kicking with kick boards!, red eyes all the time because we did not use goggles, no caps, guns for starts instead of horns, funky backstroke turn, had to keep part of your head above the water during breaststroke.... and we were allowed TWO false starts before we were DQd...
One thing that hasn't changed: Ron "Sickie" Marcikic was my age group coach and he was AWESOME and I noticed that still looks exactly the same...:notworthy:
I had black eyes too. That crap didn't work. Just made us look like football players.
But let's not forget the worst thing about the old days. There were no SDKs then. Or monofins.
And the best thing about the old days. There was no wave action breaststroke. He, he.
Did anybody ever wear that black, eye gunk that was applied to the cheeks to "prevent" glare while swimming backstroke? What a mess! I was 11 when I tried it- sigh, the days of old.
Karen, I had forgotten about that one; I did because I was a backstroker; we looked like raccoons and I don't think it worked; I think we were just "tougher" back then. But I didn't wear it on my cheeks, I wore it on my nose smeared out under my eyes. Ah, yes, you could always spot a backstroker back then:rofl:. And I remember when I got my first pair of black goggles; gosh, now those helped a ton. And what about those night meets with the lights shining in your eyes; that was worse than full sun.
donna
