Who swims over people? (Page 4)

I should clarify...  The PURPOSEFUL ankle grab followed by the back climb and push-down.  I've been reading through the responses and I'm not talking about something accidental.  Most of the times it happens at the buoy turn or in large wave starts or mass Ironman starts where slower swimmers don't know where to positions themselves.  If I'm held up by people in front and somone comes up from behind and accidentally finds themselves over me, that's one thing.  I'm not going to freak out over that.  It happens.

But you know it when someone gets a good hold of your ankle and tries to use your legs and body like a ladder to climb over and past you.  I've even had someone attempt to push down on my back and then think that they could kick off of me like I was a pool wall.  There was nothign accidental about it.  They thought it's all part of the sport (like triathlon is meant to be full-contact) and it did not end well for them.

The amount of violence and retaliation in this thread is bothersome.  I will assume that a lot of it is just talk and cooler heads would prevail if the situation actually came up.

If someone swims over you, you could get kicked, hit, or dunked - I agree, that sucks and would make someone mad. 

But the fact I hear people say they would stop, grab someone and punch them in the face?  Maybe knocking someone out and drowning them?  Wow...

I could imagine an exchange of words and maybe a shove, but I could NEVER hit someone in the face during a triathlon swim.  It's unimaginable.

There are jerks, A-holes, and cheats all the time in just about everything in life.  I just don't think a violent retaliation in the form of hititng someone is ever called for UNLESS you are defending yourself or someone else from harm.  Someone swimming over me once, even intentionally, is not a case that calls for self defense.  Now if they took time off to hit me repeatedly or repeatedly dunked me to do me harm?  Then all rules are off and I would worry about them.

I have to agree Jim.  Well put

x2

 

I tend to just ignore it, then grab their ankle as if I'm grabbing onto a dolphin's fin as they get past.  Then I get a free ride for a few strokes and save my energy.  j/k of course ;-)  I just ignore it, it's crowded out there sometimes and for all I know it was me that wasn't swimming straight and ended up accidentally crowding them as they tried to pass.  I like to believe no one does it intentionally, we're all just trying to navigate through the chaos at that point and have our heads down 95% of the time.  I'm sure if we all had to bike staring only at our front hub or run looking only at where our feet landed, we'd end up in bike accidents and stepping on people's heels without meaning to.

Sorry, I thought you were an alligator.





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You know that's not me.  Again, bumping, contact, even accidentally swimming onto someone - that's one thing.

I've never described the specific incident that I was involved in, but it was 8 years ago in my second season and involved a SC sprint in a Clydesdale wave with maybe only 40 swimmers with plenty of room to pass and move.  The guy grabs one ankle and then the other.  Claws up my legs which left a deep scratch in one leg.  Grabbed my suit and put both hands on the small of my back to push me down.  Got one hand on my shoulder and the other on my kneck, put both feet into the small of my back and was about to push off.

At that point I though it was pretty intentional and felt my life might be at risk.  Military training kicked in and I maneuvered out of the position and unloaded on the guy.  There were already two kayaks next to us (it was impossible to miss) and they helped the guy get to shore.  "I'm out right," I asked?  "Unfortunately yes," was the response and I swam back to shore with the DQ.  Even if there was no one there, I knew my day was done and I wouldn't have left if the guy was unconscious.

As it turned out, back in front of the RD and doctor, the guy and I made up.  His "career" was amateur professional wrestler - you know that VFW Hall professional 'wrestling' thing.  It was his first race and based on TV of the mass swim of a triathlon, honestly thought it was full-contact, water-wrestling no rules and thought it would be cool to try out.  He honestly thought beating your way to the front was perfectly legal.

It's the one and only time it's happened.  I've given some short kick-jabs to someone who grabs my ankle and won't let go, just to remind them to let go (the "oops I grabbed your foot" person lets go pretty quickly) but other than that, I never 'retaliate' due to incidental contact.  Besides - all of my races are local with wave starts and always enough room for people to pass and or squeeze along side.  Even in the turns.

 

Ok people. It is triathlon after all and it is open water swimming. There will be swimming over, under left and right, smacking, pulling.... Let's get over it and move on. Who does not like it, A: improve your swim so you can swim over someone else, or B: move on to another sport or pool swimming.
Just kidding, ok.