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
In my parents' day,
Open wagering on age group races at the Shamrock Hilton pool in Houston as the fashionable, inebriated elite lounged at the poolside bar. (1950's)
Re: Lycra: my mother ran the swim shop for our team, was on good terms with a national supplier, and had the latest clones of East German lycra suits express mailed to a meet as soon as they came out in the US in early 1973. The men's versions came a few months later. Major revolution.
The pool I swam in in Houston was a sad copy of the Mexico City Olympic pool. In Mexico City, the gutter was quite deep and separated from the pool by a molded plastic (soft edges) perforated screen. At our pool, the gutter had no depth at all and the screen was perforated steel (sharp edges). Boy, if that didn't teach you to keep your elbows high and your turns brief!
DV
DV,
Getting drunk and betting on your kids swims, that's good humor. Think of the fights that would break out now, with these modern, overbearing, overly intense, sports parents if they did the same thing!
Female breastrokers had these weird little ponytails that pointed straight up when swimming so that some part of their body remained above water.
Cheaters, Cheaters, Cheaters!!!!
Time off....and one of the others I think was called Motion Lotion......
Yes, those products always gave tapers meet a distinct smell. It was part of the ambiance at those meets.
He also edumacated (misspelling intentional) me on that 100m long pool. That was Flyshacker, in Flyshacker Park right near the ocean. He said he doesn't know about now, but then it was the world's largest pool. Salt water was pumped into from the ocean.
__________________
Many years ago, I was a lifeguard at Fleishhacker Pool. It was 1000 ft long (think of swimming 10 laps for a workout). It was kind of like a "T" in that it was 100 and 150 feet wide. It held 6,500,000 gallons of "heated" salt water. The pool was one of the first to have a solar system to heat the pool, when it was sunny the pool was heated. The pool was on the east side of the Great Highway, on the west side is the Pacific. Water was pumped from the Pacific to the pool. The pool was opened in 1925
When I worked there 1968-71, the pool was open for swimming for about six months of they year from about April to October. On a normal day, if there were six swimmers in the water it was a big day. On a warm day there could be hundreds of swimmers in the water.
The pool was used for high school swimming practice and the City swimming championships were held there in the Spring.
We had a couple of row boats in the pool. The pool was also used for teaching canoeing, well the part about falling out of a canoe and the then trying to get back in.
The pool was 16 feet deep in the diving end (north end) and only inches in the shallow end (south end). About every six to eight weeks, the pool had to be emptied of water and then all the sand and salt was swept out of the pool. There could easily be two to three feet of sand in the deep end of the pool. There would be a DPW dump truck that would drive into the emptied pool and it would be filled with sand.
I read that the Olympic trials were held there and that Anne Curtis set world records there. (the salt water would keep you higher in the water). The water was not clear and one could only see about two feet in the water.
As I recall the price for a kid to enter the pool was $0.10 and an adult was $0.50. Guards were paid $3.16/hr so the pool did not make money on a normal day.
Pictures of the pool are at:
baseportal.com/.../baseportal.pl
You might have to cut and paste.
And at :
sflib1.sfpl.org:82/.../
(picture 2 shows Ann Curtis when she broke the world record (it does not say what event) but look at the lane lines)
Picture #5 is from the south -shallow end of the pool
Picture #6 shows workers cleaning the pool. It did not change much 35 years later.
Also when I was a toddler, my parents took me to learn to swim at Sutro Baths. I dont have much of a memory of those pools. I remember the Sutro skating rink though.
michael
Many of the topics noted in this thread would be great subjects for the Splashback department in SWIMMER Magazine. If you have an idea you would like us to consider for inclusion in the magazine - particularly if it has a strong connection to USMS and our community of swimmers - please send a note to: editor@usms.org
Many thanks,
Bill Volckening
:coffee:
Hey,
How about the Mohawk?
A number of us used to shave our heads for league/state finals in the mohawk pattern.
This thing looked absolutely wicked cool on the high headed sprinters,viewed from the pool deck or stands.
I haven't seen one since high school (78-82).
I just saw a mohawk at a big USS meet in Buffalo. For the unofficial version, you need to see Muppet at a meet with cap off.
There is also a lot of body art in the past and present. Some kids step up on the block in the recordbreakers with every other bit of skin plastered with writing. Now all the recordbreakers also come in day glo colors.
