Kay Serrar wrote:
Mark Lemmon wrote:
Could elbowing a fellow swimmer or swimming over someone be considered an intent to cause physical harm to another athlete? I've done this more than once...
You've intentionally elbowed or swam over someone?
Someone actually once intentionally elbowed me in a swim, cutting my eye. I was getting boxed in between two swimmers just after the start. The swimmer to my left clearly wanted to get on the feet of the swimmer to my right (who was a very strong swimmer and would likely lead the wave out of the water). The stronger swimmer to my right was a 1/4 body length ahead of me and as I was being squeezed into him by the swimmer to my left my right arm came down on his shoulder. As soon as that happened on his next left arm stroke he elbowed me hard in the eye with his left elbow. Such a douche move.
I never confronted him as I knew he would just apologise and deny it was intentional, but it clearly was. Sad thing is, we had never met but I had done him a favor a couple years earlier by getting one of his athletes (he's a local coach) a late entry to IM Florida as my company was a major sponsor at the time.
So all that to say, if you have really intentionally elbowed or swam over someone in the swim, that's pretty messed up. And FWIW, I consider the former much worse than the latter.
I've thrown an elbow to stop a swimmer from swimming over me or to dissuade a swimmer from continuing to swim into me multiple times. I'm guessing elbowing someone in the head would hurt both swimmers. I've been the recipient of elbows and have been swum over. I've been kicked in the face by a swimmer after I tickled his/her feet multiple times. Physical contact like this happened routinely in tri swims I did over multiple decades where there were mass starts or large waves. It is likely not as common these days. All the tris I do now have time trial starts, maybe because of the mayhem that used to occur and was somewhat glorified.
Sincere congrats to you if you've always maintained your composure during competition.
Last edited by:
Mark Lemmon: Jun 22, 17 13:43