As a lifelong swimmer, I'm enjoying the schadenfreude of this thread. I was a "regionally good" swimmer from about age 8 through college. I could beat most anyone in local events and then I'd go to zones meets and get something like 7th place in various events. It was nice to be fairly good at something but this earned me exactly zero respect growing up. Being a swimmer is a bit frustrating this way: you put in a ton of work in the early AM, you spend a significant portion of your life getting videotaped and honing your skills, you go to elite camps and work your ass off, you might have a bit of talent, you might win boxes of trophies and NO ONE outside of people who actually know something about swimming respects any of it. You're just some dorky kid with greenish hair while football players get the girls.

Then when some athletically-inclined, ex-football player type people get a little older they discover triathlon. They then discover that hey, actually this swimming business is kinda tough. Maybe it's something you have to work at to be good. Maybe some people have talent in this arena. I can't help but gloat watching some guy struggle through 1K yards with a crap stroke and way too much gear at the end of his lane struggle to hold 2:00/100 while studying some laminated workout card and wearing a wetsuit and $80 goggles. It's sad and pathetic but this pleases me.