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.
The warmup/down area should have Life Guards who are responsible for pool safety.If someone is doing something dangerous the Guard should be notified.Then the offender can be warned or even DQd from the meet if necessary.It sounds like this person was not "circle swimming".Most meet packets say something about circle swimming so it really is a "rule violation" punishable by disqualification.
The warmup/down area should have Life Guards who are responsible for pool safety.If someone is doing something dangerous the Guard should be notified.Then the offender can be warned or even DQd from the meet if necessary.It sounds like this person was not "circle swimming".Most meet packets say something about circle swimming so it really is a "rule violation" punishable by disqualification.
