Thanks to special correspondents Caroline, Victoria, Madeleine, and Isabelle Lepesant for writing the following article:
Swimmers have a language unto themselves. The way we talk to each other is different from the way we talk to our non-swimmer friends. Here are ten examples:
1. “Oh! I didn’t recognize you with your clothes on!”
Swimmers spend somewhere between 20-30 hours a week nearly naked. We get so used to seeing each other with wet hair, wet skin, and bare midriffs that we don’t always recognize each other when fully clothed.
2. “Are you going to finish that?”
Swimmers are notorious eaters. Which makes it a lot of fun to go to restaurants with our non-swimmer friends who may or may not be counting calories.
3. “Yeah but they were suited and tapered.”
Like a handicap in golf, swimmers have their own code for leveling the playing field.
4. “Ew. That team has so much swimcest.”
It’s just weird when people from the same team date each other.
5. “Yes! We get ten seconds of rest!”
In any given set, the difference between 5 seconds of rest and 10 second of rest is huge. The harder the set, the more important it becomes.
6. “He’s such a Sallie-Save-Up!”
Swimmers don’t have a lot of respect for anyone who bags the first half of practice so they can look good beating everyone else in the dive set.
7. “My shoulders are too big for this dress.”
Just about every swim girl’s worst nightmare. If we could just get it past the shoulders, the dress would fit fine…
Grocery shopping during taper.
8. “Will you shave my back?”
At their taper meet, boys have shaving parties. Because every hair creates drag and you can’t shave your own back.
9. “I can’t…it’ll ruin my taper.”
The greatest week in a swimmer’s year is taper. Can’t walk up a flight of stairs. Can’t bring in the groceries. Best excuse in the world for neglecting our chores.
10. “I’m SwimSwam famous!”
Being retweeted, regrammed, and/or shouted out by @SwimSwamNews…. There’s just no way to explain this one to non-swimmers.
Who are those swimmers in the articles picture above? I know one is Missy, but what is the name of the other swimmer from Georgia??
Amber McDermott