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| "He called me a name!" "I want that toy!" |
Sure wetsuits give one an advantage, but if you have a problem with that, don't wear one! Don't worry about what other people are doing, or saying about their swims. It's their swim. They can call it whatever the hell they want. IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! You don't own the sport of open water swimming and if someone wants to swim in open water with a wetsuit, with paddles, fins, or whatever, who cares! I have no respect for the media, so I don't care that they don't know the difference. Just eat your damn donut and shut the hell up!
I've really had it with these elitists who feel like their swims are "lessened" because someone else did something that gives them an unnatural advantage. You know what, life just isn't fair. One day you can swim a huge distance and the next day try to cover that same exact route, and fail because Mother Nature was in a pissy mood. It's not an even playing field to begin with.
Anyway, I just had to get this off my chest, because I'm really tired of hearing so much of the "I'm better than they are, and they "cheated". I don't care! Call your swim whatever you want. You can even choose to not disclose certain advantages if you so wish, because WHAT REALLY MATTERS IS WHAT YOU THINK OF YOURSELF.
I chose to not wear a wetsuit because I like the feel of the water, and yes, I have my own thoughts about people who chose to wear them, but you know what? I keep it to myself, because again, it isn't me in the wetsuit, and it's none of my business.
7 comments:
Thanks for reminding me of this. As an event organizer (like you) it's doubly important to make everyone feel included. Last year at an event we had two divisions, wetsuit and non-wetsuit, separated by 5 minutes. The wetsuit division walked into the water first and as they got past our check-in person and the non-wetsuit swimmers started queuing, this person yelled out: "And now for the REAL swimmers!" within earshot of all the wetsuiters. Unbelievably embarrassing and a comment I still hear to this day from a couple of those wetsuit swimmers who felt very embarrassed, and who could only look back and smile as they got in the water.
I still struggle with the awards part though: wetsuit swimming and non-wetsuit swimming are not equal and so I lean towards giving better prizes to non-wetsuiters, especially when on a small budget where you can't give duplicates of all the high-end prizes, but this risk the ire of the wetsuiters.
Ouch! That is bad. Reminds me a little of my father in law's statement to my wife after her first marathon as we're all walking towards the car. As were walking we see many of the runners finishing the last quarter mile strong, and without really thinking, he said none too quietly, "Look at all these guys you beat Cathi!"
That was a little embarrassing too.
Why would anyone want to gripe about wetsuit swimmers? Most events have them in a separate classification anyway, so the "unfair advantage" gripe makes no sense. Just seems like an elitist attitude some "naked" swimmers might have to make themselves feel better or more important. Swimming is swimming and I applaud anyone who has the guts to compete in any open water race despite what he or she might be wearing. All of them are still tougher in my mind than pure dryland athletes (cycling, running, etc.) I guess that's where my elitist attitude comes into play...
Thanks for the perspective, Gords. I see you're mostly talking about people who do crossings or adventures. I'm with you. Could care less. I'll swim my own crossings and be happy to finish.
I do, however, have a problem with open water swims that don't differentiate between wetsuit and naked swimmers. I won't knowingly enter one of those. I'd like to see my times against others in my age group who swim w/o assistance. (Yes, I know I can figure it out myself after.)
Even worse are OW swims that mandate wetsuits. I won't do any of those anymore. Not that I don't like that everyone is swimming equally. I like that. I just don't like how wetsuits feel on, what they do to my skin (regardless of lube), and taking them off after the event. No thanks. I've swum in 58 degrees for almost three hours with no unexpected affects. I'll stick to naked, thank you very much.
@Matt Gerrish, some events do NOT have them separate!
Gords, Well said. Thanks.
Oh, and if my whining about someone else's whining, makes you whiny, then I guess we're all good. :)
I'm late to this party, but I think I fall somewhere in between Scott and Gords' respective posts. For me, I like the feel of the water on my skin (sort of like Gords said), but at the same time, my open water partner swims with a wetsuit. He likes it and I don't care. But on the other, hand I think that divisions pretty much take care of the issue, here. Set up divisions and forget about it. Nicely put, Gords.
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