I was at a huge meet recently (more than 600 swimmers) and thus the warmup/warmdown pool (3 lanes, 25 yards) was very crowded.
There were about 5 people in the lane I was warming up in, including one guy who kept barreling into the wall when there were two of us already there, who did flip turns at full force and nearly killed me with one, and then kept swimming down the middle of the lane between the two-way circling traffic.
I felt this was dangerous. I stopped him by pulling on his suit and told him so. He said something back that wasn't "Oh, sorry!" and continued to barrel around people.
I got out.
What is the etiquette for warmup/warmdown pools at such large meets? I know people need to sprint some, but this guy really could have hurt me or any of the other swimmers in the lane.
I tried to search to see if this has been discussed before but didn't find anything. I know that most accidents/injuries at meets occur in the warmup/warmdown pool.
What is the etiquette? Should I have gotten a more official person to tell this guy to respect the other swimmers?
P.S. I swam all my events despite only 3 weeks back in the water, including the 400 IM, which I decided to consider performance art.
No one was hanging out at the wall. All the lanes were equally crowded. Everyone is this lane was swimming and not slowly. This guy nearly killed me as two of us were approaching/leaving the wall and he came in the middle/almost on me and nearly flipped full-body weight on top of me.
He was big, powerful, and not holding back, and that's how he continued to "warm up." Thus I got out.
The time to do intensive warming up like that, alas, is at the start of the day, when all the competition pool lanes are open, and lanes are designated for faster/slower speeds.
But this swimmer was intent on continuous full-out sprinting with turns in this crowded 3-lane pool.
I should clarify "grab": as he barrelled past me in the middle, again with me on one side and another swimmer on the other, all of us swimming, and not at noodle pace, I touched him firmly, which got him to stop briefly, and told him I thought what he was doing was dangerous.
I should also say that I've been to a lot of meets, and this is the first time I've ever seen a swimmer do this in the warmup/warmdown pool. Usually swimmers are quite courteous.
No one was hanging out at the wall. All the lanes were equally crowded. Everyone is this lane was swimming and not slowly. This guy nearly killed me as two of us were approaching/leaving the wall and he came in the middle/almost on me and nearly flipped full-body weight on top of me.
He was big, powerful, and not holding back, and that's how he continued to "warm up." Thus I got out.
The time to do intensive warming up like that, alas, is at the start of the day, when all the competition pool lanes are open, and lanes are designated for faster/slower speeds.
But this swimmer was intent on continuous full-out sprinting with turns in this crowded 3-lane pool.
I should clarify "grab": as he barrelled past me in the middle, again with me on one side and another swimmer on the other, all of us swimming, and not at noodle pace, I touched him firmly, which got him to stop briefly, and told him I thought what he was doing was dangerous.
I should also say that I've been to a lot of meets, and this is the first time I've ever seen a swimmer do this in the warmup/warmdown pool. Usually swimmers are quite courteous.
