Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national level swimmer based out of Victoria, BC. In feeding his passion for swimming, he has developed YourSwimBook, a powerful log book and goal setting guide made specifically for swimmers. Sign up for the YourSwimBook newsletter (free) and get weekly motivational tips by clicking here.
For each and every swimmer who has put in the work and done the yardage the local swim meet is the opportunity to show off their hard work and dedication. Competitions provide us the outlet to push our self-perceived limitations, and re-imagine what we think is possible.
The weekend ritual that is a swim meet also provides for social interaction with friends from other teams, lots of down time between events that sometimes end up in hi-jinx, and serves as the backdrop for a wide array of characters representing both your team and the competition.
Here are 12 of the swimmers we see on deck at our local swim meets:
C-3PO. He has a charger for every mobile device (today’s version of the kid that had a ziplock bag full of double AA batteries for Discmans and Walkmans), a spare pair of headphones for when yours craps out, and even some great suggestions on new tunes to download.
The Iverson. “We talkin’ about warm-up? Not the sport I love… but warm-up?” This swimmer mystifies and infuriates coaches by declining to warm-up and warm down, and then swims out of his mind anyway.
The Peacock. Pounding their chest into a deep, painful red, spitting water into nearby lanes, slapping the blocks, and that’s just before warm-up. This intense wrecking ball of a swimmer is always one dose of caffeine away from ripping a starting block out of the ground and throwing it into the pool.
The Camper. Over-packed, over-stocked and always has the best spread in the stands. Nearby is always a cooler full of delicious, cold beverages and snacks. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree — often their parents are asking you if you’re still hungry after you’ve already plowed through half a case of PowerBars.
See Also: Swimming Goggles: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know
The Future Crossfitter. This athlete’s Speedo backpack is bulging at the sides with extra equipment, bathing suits and foam rollers. The most expensive racing suit money can buy, a couple stretch cords, two foam rollers of varying firmness, a lacrosse ball to “get deep into those nasty scaps” and compression clothing of all sizes, lengths and colors.
The Anxious Kid. So nervous and wound up is this athlete that they are nearly trembling in the stands in anticipation of their race. This poor kid’s legs are pumping wildly, while they check the psych sheets 18 times per hour to make sure when their heat is up.
The Troublemaker. With hours between events, and far too much energy to deal with, and the social pressure of being surrounded by cute members of the opposite sex, sometimes I, err, swimmers, find less than productive ways to spend their time. Like throwing pine cones at roller bladers.
The Gorilla in the Mist. The shave-down is a sacred process. For the exceptionally hairy male, it’s a labor intensive process that leaves them feeling more like a hairless cat than a streamlined torpedo. These males leave the pool showers post-shave with the drains clogged with what appears to be Harry Potter-styled wigs.
The Warm-Up Analyst. With hundreds, sometimes thousands, of swimmers all trying to get their respective warm-up in, this swimmer spends half the warm-up behind the blocks trying to watch the lanes to judge which one will be quietest 5 minutes from now.
Tardy McTardyson. This swimmer is late on deck, late for warm-up, late finishing warm-up, late to team meetings, and is typically seen sprinting towards the blocks, wrapping a cap over her head while the heat before hers is getting out of the water. Some do it for the thrill, others simply get caught up in a killer game of Bump.
The Taper Burner. Swimmers will find always find ways to burn time in between sessions and events. For some, relaxing reading a book is their go-to move, while others indulge in extracurriculars that are not exactly productive (see: Pinecone Throwing). The Mel Zajac Jr. meet held at UBC in Vancouver was famous for in-between event Bump tourneys. The size of the game grew quickly each time, making for long, epic battles, with many swimmers hurrying back and forth from races to play. Unfortunately, the intensity and effort involved came at a price, leaving more than a few of us bagged and unfocused after burning off what was otherwise a fantastic taper.
(* My own claim to fame was as an age grouper when I absolutely crushed an Olympic sprint champion’s ball 100 feet into the warm-down pool to clinch a win. It’s on my resume to this day.)
The Cheerleader. You can always rely on this swimmer to remind you the words to the cheers. By the end of each session he or she is tomato-faced, voiceless, and covered in face paint. This team player also went to the trouble of getting temporary tattoos made of the club logo (“Fine, my Mom helped, but it was my idea!”) and only quietly resents you when you don’t cheer as loudly when they are on the blocks.
The Stat Guy/Gal. iPad nearby with their race footage, this swimmer needs to know all of their splits, SR, SC, turn time, breakout time, pre and post race heart rates, blood lactate levels, number of breaths taken, and anything else they can put into a spreadsheet. They’ll analyze their race to exhaustion, and then see how you performed for comparison. Nothing like finishing a race, and having their head spring up from behind the blocks – “How’d ya do?!”
Can you think of any other swimmers that you see at your local swim meet? Of course you can! List ’em in the comments below!
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The goggle guy: the swimmer who puts on their goggles, then puts on a million caps as soon as possible. When not warming up, can only be seen with hands on goggles, tightening goggles a million times. After the meet, can be seen with deep goggle marks for days. (That’s me)
The Dedicated Student: You will most likely see this kid with not only his/her swim bag, but also a school backpack with 5 textbooks. Spends every little bit of time doing homework, and often forgets to warm up or even race.
This Iverson quote is taken out of context BADLY… I encourage everyone to watch he actually says during the whole press conference.
Haha Mel Zajac and bump
… been there done that. Wont be the same at the new pool
The collector: high school swimmer who’s goal is to “obtain” a swim cap from every team at the meet. For science of course
Am I missing out on something? What is the game of “Bump?”
This was such a funny article! “The Peocock” describes literally all of the 15-18 Year-old males on my swim team. xD
Bump=lightning