Your definition of "a lap"?

A little etymology to add to the frivolity. "Lap" is cognate to a variety of words sharing an Indo-European root, meaning to hang loosely. Thus we have words like lobe, flap, loop, lapse, lip, etc. In English, lap meant particularly the loose part of clothing, like the hanging end of a skirt or dress or kilt. That's why we sit in someone's lap, and repose in the lap of luxury. Since a loose end can be "lapped" back onto itself, a circular or enclosing sense has more recently been attached to lap, as in overlap. Or as in doing a few laps around the track. When a race car laps another, it has done one more revolution around the track, overtaking the other car. So in swimming, as when someone is lapped by Sun Yang, perhaps twice in the same race.

Lap Sports To get ahead of (an opponent) in a race by one or more complete circuits of the course, as in running, or by two or more lengths of pool in swimming. from freedictionary

When I swim Big Shoulder's Open Water 5K the LENGTH of the race is 5K. To reach the distance of 5K I must swim 2 LAPS of the course. Does this make sense or am I crazy?

my vote... a lap is a round trip, i.e. 2 lengths; being lapped does not mean you are only 1 length behind in usage though, lap and length mean the same thing....so why try to change the world PS....this must be a long debate. I asked this in swim class in high school (about 1965). Was told that a lap was 2 lengths.

When I'm coaching I use the word LENGTH in practice not lap in case people have different interpretations of lap. But most of the time we count in 25's, 50's, 100's etc so really there's never a need to know what a lap is.

Again,I think this is a frivolous point."Real swimmers" count by distance(25s,50s 100s ,1000s ,5000s,etc)If someone asks me how many laps I swam I know they aren't a swimmer.If someone asks how many yards I swam They may be a swimmer(but one who values quantity over quality,you sprinters know what I am talking about.) I had a very similar thing to this the other week at the Y pool. I was almost finished and the guy in the next lane over asked how many laps or lengths I had done. I told him I was almost at 3000 yards in under an hour. He then asked "well...how many laps is that". I thought about doing the math, but then just said..."I don't know" and continued on with my next set. :)

Never in my life have I heard of a link ??????? It has ALWAYS BEEN 1 END OF THE POOL TO THE OTHER END IS A LAP =LENGTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe your:worms: "I used to coach track , now turned swim coach" calls it that but it is not

Wow, all these years I've been swimming (all 3 of them) I incorrectly thought a lap was two entire length's, i.e., 50 M/Y (SC) or 100 M (LC).

I always thought of it as lengths and laps. The biggest reason is that I always wanted to "lap" other swimmers in the 500.

Again,I think this is a frivolous point."Real swimmers" count by distance(25s,50s 100s ,1000s ,5000s,etc)If someone asks me how many laps I swam I know they aren't a swimmer.If someone asks how many yards I swam They may be a swimmer(but one who values quantity over quality,you sprinters know what I am talking about.)