This year's Olympics featured a new swimming discipline at the Olympics: the 10km open-water swim. It's long and gruelling and rufty-tufty: with no lanes, athletes block each other out, swim over one another, and barge to get the best position. The Russian women's winner described some of the more hairy moments as like "boxing not swimming" and David Davies said he felt "violated" after being kicked, trampled and de-goggled in the melee. And that's all on top of a two hour swim intense enough that he went off for a lie down in the medical tent and the girls, the day after, said it "really really hurts!"
The athletes included an amputee and a leukemia survivor and all of them were alying down a pacce double my absolute breathing-through-my-arse-and-seeing-stars sprint speed, for two whole hours. They took food and drink on board while swimming and were followed by a ref in a boat issuing yellow cards for getting too frisky. It had everything.
This is
exactly what the challenge sport community lap up. They drink this kind of gruelling gnarliness with their porridge - remember in the 90s the marathoners who would go on about their blistered feet and bleeding nipples? Or the naughties triathletes motivated by the weeping athletes crawling across the Kona finish line on their knees?
It's also exactly what the "pure sport" people are crying out for. This is not rhythmic gymnastics or horse dancing, this is a proper first-past-the-post race that really is in the original Olympic spirit. Coubertin would love it. The ancient Greeks would love it ("Swim to that island and back, first one back with a golden apple wins the Fleece!" *splash biff splash*). I predict great things for open-water swimming in the next few years.
2012's open-water swim will be held in the Serpentine, in Hyde Park. One to watch.
...and one to have a go at?
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