Should Swimmers be Allowed to Swim in the Same Lane During a Race?

By Coleman Hodges on SwimSwam

Let me start with this: These are gut-reaction thoughts I had while watching this video and they are not fully formed. That’s why I’m asking for your feedback, swimmers and swammers: I’d love to hear what you think about these ideas.

We saw a swimmer end up in the wrong lane at the 2024 Polish Nationals in the women’s 200 IM final, so that for the last 100 meters, they swam the race in the same lane. This brought up two questions for me.

1. is the crossover turn effective? 

We already know that the back-to-breast turn in an Individual Medley is problematic. there are tons of controversial DQs on a global scale as a result of the crossover turn, as recently as last summer at the 2023 World Championships. But to see it be so disorienting that a swimmer in an Olympic Qualification meet ends up in the wrong lane crosses a line for me.

I’m tempted to say people should be allowed to finish on their stomach in the backstroke leg of an IM. Would it really be that big of a deal if people could take one freestyle stroke than do a backstroke flipturn like they do in a backstroke race? It seems a lot more straightforward and consistent than the current format.

It seems like the current rules “keep the event pure” but aren’t exceedingly practical. Is there something I’m not seeing here?

2. Would swimming in other lanes during a race add a fun level of depth in races?

I know this is wayyy more out there than number 1. But… it could be fun.

In my brain, I’m thinking you allow swimmers to go into other lanes during the race *without* touching other swimmers AND under the condition that they’d have to finish in their assigned lane. It would add so many variables. You could get out in front and give someone a draft. You could get out in front and try to wake someone else. You could purposefully get behind to draft off of someone. Or you could just screw with your competition.

Again, I don’t think this is particularly practical. But in certain settings, like maybe a college dual meet, it seems like it could add a lot of parity, which swimming seems to be moving towards.

SwimSwam: Should Swimmers be Allowed to Swim in the Same Lane During a Race?