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.
Former Member
I haven't but I have known a teammate who broke her nose the same way, and another teammate who hit her hand on someone else's paddle and broke her finger. Feel better soon!
I thought I did. Touching the wall at the end of a 100 free, I jammed my left middle finger. It turned purple and I couldn't bend it for a few days. I still swam a couple of events afterwards. Plus, with that particular finger stuck extended the way it was, it didn't affect my driving either!
I haven't broken anything of my own, but I hit one of my teammates' hands with my paddle. My arms in freestyle are more like fly because they're so long (I'm 5'8" and my wingspan is 5'10"), so I hit people all the time when we're all crowded in.
I've strained my Achilles tendon practicing turns, cuz I didn't get my whole foot on the wall. I got some bad stress fractures from ballet for nine years, and pushing off like that aggravates them.
Broke my 5th metacarpal backstroking in a stupid pool with messed up flags that are like 20ft off the ground making it hard to judge the distance.
I know a couple people who have broken fingers and noses. Nothing too crazy though.