I am curious what this means and how it happens or better how to avoid. I am new to all this having completed 7 events (sprint to 70.3) since 2023 and think I am in the time where mass starts seem to be rare or gone. I have yet to be swam over nor can I imagine swimming over someone though have felt some contact. But I still read about people taking about swimming over people. I would appreciate insight on what this literally means and how to avoid being swam over which seems quite concerning….
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Thank you for seeding yourself properly for the swims.
In mass start or wave start races, some athletes underestimate the strength of other swimmers in the field and line up too far forward. As the swim start becomes congested, faster swimmers may pass more closely than slower swimmers would like, which may make it seem as if they are being swum over. It’s not difficult to roll out of this type of situation, but it is much easier to avoid it entirely.
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Haven’t had this happen to me since rolling starts. In the old mass swims I’d occasionally have people swim across the back of my legs. Once had someone swim over my lower back. More often, you’d get hit with an arm or kicked in the head.
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Doesn’t happen much in the WTC 70.3/IM events where you self-seed by time as most swimmers are similarly paced.
It will happen in local-type races where AGs are let off in separate waves. Like the M50+ launching 5 minutes ahead of W50+. The slowest of the M50 men will get caught by the star swimmers of the W50+ group. And often times, that front pack of the W50 group is sighting off each other, while hammering the swim. If a slow guy from the wave ahead gets mistakenly sighted for a fast woman swimmer, they women will swim right at that guy (thinking he’s a fast women who will keep ahead), and due to the speed difference, they’ll plow right over him.
Happened to me in my first triathlon where I had a ill-fitting wetsuit that restricted my arms so badly I could barely swim (it was pro-fitted in a shop, sadly, and YES, I pulled it up to the max!). I got swam over by 3 different waves. And we’re not talking one swimmer. The ladies in particular, were swimming in a line, so once I got hit by the first one, I got swum over by the next 5-7. I couldn’t even get out of the way, they were so fast. I just put my head down, tried not to move, and got run over. Wasn’t fun, but I eventually made it out!
Since then I’ve accidentally swam over 1-2 people in the past 10 years, in similarly circumstances where I thought I was following the same fast feet in front of me, and next thing I know, I’m on top of someone. I did stop briefly and shouted “so sorry - didn’t see you there!” and hoped for the best.
I haven’t had this problem at all in the WTC races (the Ironman company) after the self-seeding by swim start. I’m usually significantly faster than the swimmers I end up launching with, but I’m not like 1.5x faster which is what it takes to get swum over.
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Worst was where I correctly seeded myself towards teh mid back of the M40-50 wave but then 500m from the end of the swim the 30-50 females caught me. Ironically the worst pummeling I got was from my mates wife - she was identifiable as the only one in sleeveless wetsuit.
For me the issue is that back from the front quartile, even in wetsuits most of us have legs that are not on the surface, and so unintentionally people can overlap, especially when everyone is ‘shoaling’ as opposed to all swimming straight.
Sometimes you get people either side just moving in on you, and they you have the option of being swum over, swimming over them, or dropping back.
Learning to breath bilaterally, realising and being comfortable swimming for 20s between breaths for 50m+ help you to realise that whilst not enjoyable, you don’t need to panic. Relax and you find some water.
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I’ve only ever intentionally swam over someone in a pool race. We were supposed to self seed, and the swim was done in a sort of serpentine format, where you zig zag up and down each lane. Per the pre race athletes meeting, If you were to over take, you were to tap the person’s foot and they should wait at the wall for you to pass. The lanes were just too tight to pass in otherwise.
I was holding around 1:25-1:30/100m and the guy in front of me was probably around 2:00/100m. I caught him almost immediately, tapped his foot, and he didn’t stop at the wall. The next length, I tapped him pretty hard, twice, on the legs so he absolutely knew I was there. Again, he did not stop at the wall. We started in the shallow end and were slowly making our way to the deep end, so I figured, if I was going to go for it, now was the time.
I basically mowed over him as fast as I could by pushing him down a bit, grabbing his shoulder and just pulled myself over and past him, and tried not to kick as I went past. It was a bit of an asshole move. Im not sure what the people behind me, who also were going to catch him, did.
In OW it’s a different story. Often times a mass swim start is quite wide, but everyone funnels in to a line or pack quickly. In this process, if you’re too far forward in the pack and not fast enough, you might get swam over as the pack converges over you. This can actually be quite dangerous as people can gulp in water and start to panic.
Swim starts were a bit of a wild west scenario in the early days of triathlon. Anyone remember this old Clifbar commercial?
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Even with mass starts there was usually enough room, and the venues with deep water starts were less frantic. New Zealand might be the only one left - I did it this year.
The worst one I did was Coeur d’Alene years ago because it was a relatively narrow section to enter, and they had a beach-running mass start. It was rough.
Those were the days…
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Austria 2005 was pretty bad. 2500 starting on a really wide beach. 500m out to a pontoon then a left turn. So you had everyone congregating and then some people got pushed to the side so started treading water holding the side of the rectangular pontoon, then the next lot had to hold ont their shoulders…. Ended up about 6 ‘deep’ and that got hairy. Then you ended up in a 10ft wide canal… Was scary fast with that level of current generated, but obviously there was inevitable ‘taps’. At one point a person was swimming next to me with a closed fist and 4 strokes in a row hit me on the back of the head. No-one had anywhere to go but a single ‘tap’ back and he managed to adapt his stroke to be a touch narrower to avoid contact and we were all happy then to the finish.
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I’m sure it wasn’t a fist, same way people think their legs are being pulled when it’s just a normal stroke brushing their leg..
I’ve whacked people in the back of the head swimming with a normal open hand recovery which hurt my hand, I’m sure they felt like they had been punched..
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Many swimmers swim with their eyes closed as well.
Most people would not deliberately swim over another person, but they may accidentally swim up on to their legs before they realise the person is there and then quickly adjust
I have heard of people swimming over others, and then pushing them down if they deliberately impede a faster swimmer. Rare but does happen.
In the pool you can be mindful of other swimmers to avoid this happening, such as lane splitting or not pushing off when the other person is close to the wall
This is not a thread about lane etiquette though
In open water it is difficult to avoid sometimes
It can be avoided if you do not sprint at the start, and then run out of energy, and have other people in your wave swim over you
If you have a friend who is a good swimmer you should ask them about tips to show good etiquette at the pool.
If you are very concerned about this take a look over your shoulder at congested parts of the course such as on turning buoys
Wear a bright green cap, be seen
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Crazy.
I dont like to go out at top speed in ow events and like to build it up over the race.
I find these mass starts turn me off doing the real big events
I dislike having to do swim gymastics to swim past people from 100-300m who end up many many minutes behind at the end of a 1500-2km event after taking off at the start like Michael klim
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I’m a guy that wears lycra and shaves my legs. Somone blinks at me funny and I feel like they’ve punched me as I go into my fetal position and start crying. So I note your point but I’m still claiming it was a closed fist and the guy was 20stone of solid muscle….
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My first 70.3 I was full on dunked and swam over. It was about 1200 yards into the swim coming out of a turn and a kayak came over to corral a big group of us back onto the right line. All of a sudden a big open water area got pretty small for a few of us, and just as I was about to pass and almost touch the kayak on the correct side a swimmer behind me did her best orca impression and swam over my back and pushed me down. Dick move and even the guys in the kayak asked if I was ok after. So it does happen, I get pretty cautious going around bouys or any kind of area that bottlenecks a bit.
Thanks all for this insight and experience. Very helpful to understand the situations that most likely create this. Curious if anyone developed strategies to prepare for this and reduce the anxiety? I am comfortable swimming near people in a pool. I am trying to get more open water time in but it is rarely as crowded. I suspect holding my breathe occasionally to gain that confidence of how long I can go may be the trick. Thanks again.
I actually thought mass starts were better. After about a hundred meters or so it sorted itself out. With the rolling starts many people seeding themselves improperly and you can have water battles halfway through the swim. Then, and races with waves, like Hawaii, the older age groups (60+) start a little earlier and you have some of the younger folks swimming through and it can turn into a war zone. I would like to go back to mass starts.
Taupo still is like this! Not as bad since you seed horizontally into buckets based on estimated finish. But 100% start at same time. So much fun to know it’s actually a race against the same clock.
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My first mass start was IMUSA 2001. Somehow I was smart enough to line up to the far right and angle my swim toward the buoy line.
After that race I lined up to the outside (right) for all my mass start open water swims except one, IMAZ11. That race I was racing with two other friends and somehow while waiting for the gun and talking with them I ended up in the front towards the middle. It was my worst nightmare. I was getting swam hit, swam over, push down. I was ready to DNF right there but managed to work my way to the far right where I ended up finding calm waters and got my shit together and finished the swim and race.
I’d like to do mass starts again as I agree it is nice to know everyone is on the same clock.
The advice I would give to someone doing a mass start swim is to be sure to understand where you should line up at the start for your swim abilities.
My best advice is to be confident in your swimming, first off. Confidence is going to come from swimming a lot and swimming to the demands of the event. Secondarily, seeding yourself correctly in an IM event is also important. Some people will put themselves in faster groups with the hopes of being with “better” swimmers, but the reality is if you overseed yourself you are going to make better swimmers pass you frequently, some may be a bit more aggressive about it. Seeding yourself realistically will ensure you are floating along at generally the same speed as everyone else with minimal passing occurring.
The worst race I’ve done for that was the Napa olympic tri last year in spring. Mass start + buoy ~200 meters after the start forcing everyone to do a 180° turn. You can imagine how brutal it was.
Still a beautiful race, everything else was great!