Swimming - the women's bodies

[Palm_Beach]

Do other Olympic sports belong here or in the Off Topic section?

I was watching swimming in a bar with some friends last night, all of whom decided that women swimmers are on steriods due to their overdeveloped upper bodies along with almost complete lack of breasts. They honestly looked like men. We also watched volleyball, and those women had more normal feminine bodies, even the tall skinny ones.

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but wow, I could see what they were talking about.

[Daisyesq]

There are all kinds of body types, but swimming requires a very strong upperbody and shoulders. If you have that kind of body, you are going to gravitate towards a sport that you will have advantage.

If you are super tall, try basketball! It will be easier for you than for shorter people, although your body type alone won’t make you an Olympian.

As for steroids, I don’t know. But surely they had a swimming-favorable body type before they took any performance enhancing drug.

[alterGS]

Those swimming suits are like sports bras for your entire body. You are a lot faster the less resistance you have and ‘curves’ are resistance.

I recommend this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag4C0MFRnmE (especially around 4:29)

But that said, I also don’t think that athletes who have dedicated their entire lives to this sport give a flying hoot what someone on the internet thinks of their body. These bodies can do incredible things. Shame on you to criticize them.

[Rallycairn]

I think it is like cycling and Lance Armstrong – no one can say anything, but if it is ever caught/outted – everyone will look back and say it appeared obvious, or they knew it all along, etc. Same with women’s tennis.

I don’t see how you can look at some of the musculature and not recognize that women don’t come that muscular without enhancement, beyond even the most rigorous diet and conditioning regimens.

[Countrywood]

Body types get shaped by the sport itself. These athletes start very young and do their sport hours a day. Most of the female swimmers had a bit of body fat, very solid butl there, they dd not look like men, they looked like strong women swimmers! Narrow hips from so much time moving in the water, well developed shoulders and arms from the same. Like sleek seals…

[Miss_Woodford]

Well the “almost complete lack of breasts” is due to the compression effect of the suits. The women look nothing like that in casual clothes.

[Gestalt]

I think that women swimmers have the most beautiful bodies. They look sleek and long. Wish I did!

[JanM]

I’ve heard the commentators say (at other events, not at this one) that the suits are for streamlining, and are actually at least a size too small for compression. Plus, the swimmers have very little body fat, so they won’t be top heavy anyway. That’s just the body type they are. I’ve met a few top college swimmers (female), and they are just built that way. The one I knew had been captain of her team, and knew after college she was not swimming again competitively, and she had that same body type about two years after she stopped swimming daily.

[Foxtrot_s]

You were watching swimming in a bar! Obviously experts in the shape of a woman’s body!

It is getting harder and harder to fool WADA. An athlete has to let them know exactly where they are at any given time, morning, noon or night. At any of those times there can be a knock on the door and two people will be there with I.D. and ask for the athlete by name. From that point onwards a female is not out of sight of a female officer…she will follow her to the bathroom and has to roll her top up to her breasts and sit there until she can pee.

After a competition, the selected athletes will have similar procedure - until they can give the required urine sample, no matter how long it takes so they drink a lot of water.

The B samples are kept and even checked before the following Olympics where they can be banned if more research has evolved to identify the banned substances. Medals get exchanged, shame all round, non medalists suddenly receive a medal…

[UnlacedDreams]

[QUOTE=Rallycairn;8783894]
I think it is like cycling and Lance Armstrong – no one can say anything, but if it is ever caught/outted – everyone will look back and say it appeared obvious, or they knew it all along, etc. Same with women’s tennis.

I don’t see how you can look at some of the musculature and not recognize that women don’t come that muscular without enhancement, beyond even the most rigorous diet and conditioning regimens.[/QUOTE]

What!? I’ve known women this muscular that do not do drugs to get there. It’s not the majority of women by far, and yes women don’t get as muscular as men, but the level of musculature seen in the women Olympic swimmers is totally possibly.

[Foxtrot_s]

Take a look at the womens’ rugby - those ladies are b.u.i.l.t.

Canada through to the semi-finals against Australia in women’s rugby.

[stoicfish]

[QUOTE=Foxtrot’s;8784131]
Take a look at the womens’ rugby - those ladies are b.u.i.l.t.

Canada through to the semi-finals against Australia in women’s rugby.[/QUOTE]

Yep, those ladies are strong.

The same could be said of the men, why do so many men in the Olympics have such broad shoulders and muscles?
Ummm, cause they train ridiculous amounts and have a natural body aptitude for the sport. It seems rather sexist that they notice this about the females (gymnastics have that type too but shorter) but not the males. They are the elite in type and training, of course they look different.

[OldLadyYoungOTTB]

Swimming develops the upper body/shoulders like no other sport. My son has been on a local competitive swim team for several years, and the girls start getting that “swimmer body” in their early teens. Most of the serious/talented ones have it, and I’m pretty sure drugs are not at play in little local club teams. Low body fat + super tight suit + developed upper body = that look you are referring to.

Top level swimmers practice a couple of hours a day, twice a day, even as young kids. That definitely shapes your body as you are growing. The “swimmer body” does go away when they quit swimming. My SIL was a swimmer and had that look, but since she’s quit, she looks like a more normal woman now.

[d1277]

This thread is cracking me up because DH is watching indoor volleyball and he commented that volleyball is his favorite sport to watch during the Oympics. I told him that I prefer to watch beach volleyball because the guys are tan and buff and don’t wear shirts. He said he would say the same about the women, and I retorted that the men in beach volleyball have bigger boobs then the women :lol: A lot of women in pro athletics are flat chested because of the lack of fat on their bodies but swimming is certainly one that also builds your shoulders. I also suspect there is some prejudice from the East German swimmers from the 80s.

[Hunter_Mom]

When I was in high school I swam, and we always wore suits 1-2 sizes too small to hold everything in & reduce drag. And that was well before the years of any high performance suits.

[UnlacedDreams]

I really wish I could post a picture of one of my friends who devoted herself to fitness and got really buff, but shes a fairly shy person. She went from being quite busty and soft (but nowhere near even being “chubby”) to having a flat chest, no “curves” and lots of muscles. She doesn’t have quite the upper body of a swimmer, but very close to it. She works out for 2 to 3 hours a day and is quite strict in her dietary habits.

She also has a career working with mentally disabled children (where she has to get drug tested regularly), is extremely religious & thinks drugs are sinful, and does the exercise stuff purely for her own enjoyment. Yeah, I think she’s a bit crazy but I’d eat my hat if I found out she did steroids.

[Rel6]

[QUOTE=Palm Beach;8783863]
Do other Olympic sports belong here or in the Off Topic section?

I was watching swimming in a bar with some friends last night, all of whom decided that women swimmers are on steriods due to their overdeveloped upper bodies along with almost complete lack of breasts. They honestly looked like men. We also watched volleyball, and those women had more normal feminine bodies, even the tall skinny ones.

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but wow, I could see what they were talking about.[/QUOTE]

Guess what breasts are made of? Body fat.

Guess what people who swim miles per day do not have a lot of? Body fat.

Its not rocket science. Plus, as others have said, the suits are designed to reduce drag in the water and do so by creating sleek lines through compression.

Also, have you ever swam a lap doing the butterfly stroke? I have. One lap. Because that was all I could manage without drowning like a wet rat because my arms, shoulders, and back were on fire. These athletes are literally pulling themselves through the water with their upper body (yes they are kicking too) and your knee-jerk reaction to them having developed upper body muscles is that they must be on steroids?

Also, their muscles are not “overdeveloped”. It just sounds like some of your friends brains are “underdeveloped”.

[js]

One of the female Russian swimmers tested positive twice, there was some controversies last night about her still being able to participate. So yes some to use drugs to boost their abilities, others don’t. Some are just naturally built to be better swimmers.

[JER]

[QUOTE=Foxtrot’s;8784090]

It is getting harder and harder to fool WADA. An athlete has to let them know exactly where they are at any given time, morning, noon or night. At any of those times there can be a knock on the door and two people will be there with I.D. and ask for the athlete by name. [/QUOTE]

Well, in theory maybe. But here we have GB cyclist Lizzie Armitstead having three ‘whereabouts’ violations in 10 months – miss 3 tests in a year and you’re banned, the rule is very clear – and British Cycling gets one of her misses overturned because she ‘had her phone on silent’ when the testers called. So, like everything else with the various orgs and doping, arrangements can always be made to work around these rules.

You can read an excellent interview here with the former head investigator for WADA, who describes in detail how WADA repeatedly tried to undermine his investigations.

There is LOTS of doping in swimming. Several known Russian dopers (including one who tested positive 5 times this year) will be in the pool in Rio. And Sun Yang, who’s served a ban and then was also taking meldonium, allegedly for an alleged heart problem that allegedly resolved itself when meldonium was banned. If anyone saw the women’s 400 IM final last night, your head does spin when an older swimmer who’s made Michelle Smith-like improvements obliterates the world record that was set by the most suspect Chinese swimmer in London. Of course, the most successful dopers are the ones who can’t get caught, because the drugs are sophisticated enough to either not test or to cause increases in the production of your own HGH or testosterone or EPO, which would be therefore ‘natural’ and not detectable.

As for the breast issue, as others have said, the tech suits have lots of compression and you really have to stuff yourself into them. A new one can take a good 30-40 minutes to put on and that effort alone will leave you drenched in sweat.

I think it’s cool that you were watching swimming in a bar. That should happen more often than once every four years.

[Rallycairn]

[QUOTE=JER;8784216]
Well, in theory maybe. But here we have GB cyclist Lizzie Armitstead having three ‘whereabouts’ violations in 10 months – miss 3 tests in a year and you’re banned, the rule is very clear – and British Cycling gets one of her misses overturned because she ‘had her phone on silent’ when the testers called. So, like everything else with the various orgs and doping, arrangements can always be made to work around these rules.

You can read an excellent interview here with the former head investigator for WADA, who describes in detail how WADA repeatedly tried to undermine his investigations.

There is LOTS of doping in swimming. Several known Russian dopers (including one who tested positive 5 times this year) will be in the pool in Rio. And Sun Yang, who’s served a ban and then was also taking meldonium, allegedly for an alleged heart problem that allegedly resolved itself when meldonium was banned. If anyone saw the women’s 400 IM final last night, your head does spin when an older swimmer who’s made Michelle Smith-like improvements obliterates the world record that was set by the most suspect Chinese swimmer in London. Of course, the most successful dopers are the ones who can’t get caught, because the drugs are sophisticated enough to either not test or to cause increases in the production of your own HGH or testosterone or EPO, which would be therefore ‘natural’ and not detectable.

As for the breast issue, as others have said, the tech suits have lots of compression and you really have to stuff yourself into them. A new one can take a good 30-40 minutes to put on and that effort alone will leave you drenched in sweat.

I think it’s cool that you were watching swimming in a bar. That should happen more often than once every four years. :)[/QUOTE]

Thank you, JER. I’m not saying everyone “dopes” but if you can’t see that some of these physiques (men AND women, it’s just that this thread is about women swimmers) stretch credulity even with strict diet and amazing fitness and conditioning … and not just (as one example) the incredibly bulky muscles, but the stamina, insanely short recovery times, and consistency in performance …

these things add up. And absolutely the drug testing system can be gamed. How long did Lance Armstrong get away with an open secret? I remember years before he was outed, someone familiar with the cycling world telling me – if you win in cycling, you dope. Period. Cause you don’t win without it. I don’t know cycling and am not on the “inside” of any sport – but I can look at the patterns of behaviors, and realistic expectations of what a body can achieve consistently and with little recovery time between efforts. Plus the number of times athletes are caught, and medals rescinded, and so on.