Finswimming. Ever heard of it? I hadn’t until this morning when I turned on the tv and discovered The World Games in progress. I’d never heard of them either. They feature sports that are not included in the Olympic Games — except, I was informed, for break dancing, now called breaking, which will debut as a sport in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
But finswimming was the event that really captured my attention. You’re familiar with the fins that scuba divers wear — a big flipper on each foot. Finswimmers, instead, use a single giant fin, a “monofin,” reminiscent of a porpoise’s tail.
As the swimmers took their marks, I was unsure what to expect but guessed they’d probably be somewhat faster than competitive swimmers not wearing fins. And with that introduction, here’s an example of what I saw:
I don’t dispute their athleticism, but that seems rather gimmicky.
Reminiscent of the “mermaids” at aquatic shows.
Utterly ridiculous ! – but huge fun. 😀
Two people competing in the same silly task = a sport, apparently.
Hmmm, okay. Interesting. What will they think of next?
Okay, I give up. Apparently nobody here was blown away by the sheer speed of these swimmers. (I always have tended to take things too seriously.)
Yep, sheer speed true, but that doesn’t bode well to spot the corporate logos on da fins. But fun.
Gee, I don’t know how I missed those.
it did remind me of the mermaids, and there are classes now for people to learn mermaid swimming. I think it takes a lot of strength and skill to do this, and these competitors are mighty powerful athletes.
They’ve refined the dolphin kick that I’ve always thought looked terribly awkward, unnatural, and difficult. No more.
The speed is amazing! I notice that none of them tries to breathe during the race, so lung capacity is paramount. The Nepalese ought to do well at this.
In the race I watched, some of the swimmers wore short, front-mounted snorkels. If you look closely you can see them on the two swimmers closest to the camera. I guess they are optional, and some swimmers must feel they just cut into their speed.
I was too. In fact, one of the things I was most interested in was to see just how fast they would be. And I was blown away.
I was literally slack-jawed. I never imagined a swimmer could move that fast under his own power. I also don’t know how they manage their flip turns.
Okay, at what point do they put those on? I cannot imagine they are able to walk in them.
They put them on while sitting on the starting blocks. I was surprised to see how easily they did flip turns with them on.