I didn't think it was possible, certainly not likely but I did it. I don't mean slipping on the deck and breaking an arm. I mean "while swimming".
Two nights ago, going into my backstroke turn in the middle of my 200IM, I realized too late that the backstroke flags had been taken down. I arched my neck to look upside down toward the wall to guage the distance, BAM, I slammed face first into the wall. I came up with a pretty small gash on my nose and cut on my forehead. It wasn't so much painful as startling and certainly embarrassing. Once the bleeding stopped, I thought I should go see about getting it stitched at our local, friendly ER. While in the waiting room, I realized my face hurt...ALOT, so they did an x-ray and sure enough a broken nose.
I've never broken a bone in my life (knock on wood). I quit running 18 months ago b/c I had become so injury prone in my late 30's/early 40's. It's not so bad though, as broken bones go. I'll be back in the pool in a few days once my stitches are gone. The bone will take 4-6 weeks to heal but that shouldn't keep me out of the pool.
Just curious if I'm unique in this regard.
my sister was kicked in the face and broke her nose in practice in high school.
and my mother broke all her toes doing the old fashioned backstroke flip turn when she was in middle school. i was TERRIFIED to do a backstroke flip turn when i first was learning how to swim...until someone explained to me that the turn had changed and so there was no longer any danger of me getting my toes caught in the gutter like she did.
Broke my hand on a backstroke finish. Although I felt pretty foolish about it at the time, I have since heard from a number of other swimmers who have done the same thing. (I sprain fingers all the time on finishes.)
it's rare to break a bone in swimming, especially large ones, but it does happen.
Swimmers can break
+ fingers on bad touches, (Neil Walker NCAAs, I've come close a few times)
+ toes and heels on turns
+ hands when smacking other swimmers mid stroke or diving in and hitting bottom
The riskiest time is when a swimmer dives or jumps in the pool, bones can break if they hit the bottom or another swimmer.
I'm sure there is or was some one some where who dove in or jumped in an empty pool. Ouch.
I imagine diving to be a much riskier injury prone aquatic sport.
Ande
I have never broken a bone all by myself. Someone slugged me in the face in an OW race in 1998 and broke my nose for me, however.
When my former coach was a teen, someone threw a kickboard at her just as she was diving in. The kickboard and her head managed to connect just right and she broke a vertebra in her neck (no permanent injury, though).
I gave myself a concussion once about five or six years ago by daydreaming and missing the flags and backstroking right into the wall. Fortunately, I was slacking and the concussion was minor. I was disoriented and sort of dizzy for a while and I had a low-grade headache for a few days.
My brother broke his ankle doing a flip turn - I'm thinking HOW do you break a bone while swimming when my mom told me about it. -Guess it happens more often than I thought. :bolt:
I nearly broke both heels doing a flip turn in a really cloudy pool.
Goose-egged them both, but the swelling went down the next day, so I never went to a doctor.
Former Member
broke a finger backstroking. had my goggles kicked off my face plenty of times in OW events.
Former Member
Just curious if I'm unique in this regard. Hell no. Back to the days I was coaching Varsity Level, a strong 100back female specialist crashed into the wall at race pace.
Scull fracture. Knocked Out. Blood everywhere. Emergency transport to the hospital. Wasn't pretty.
