Marathon Swimming Rules Survey - Results and Analysis

The gist of “English Channel Rules” in marathon swimming is fairly simple: Textile swimsuits, cap, goggles, earplugs, and grease are allowed. Fins, paddles, and wetsuits are not. In the words of the Channel Swimming Association, who first codified Channel Rules in 1927: “No person…shall use or be assisted by an artificial aid of any kind.”

But the waters get murkier on closer inspection. What about full-body swimsuits, directional streamers, bow wake drafting, warm-water showers, shark breaks, and lightning breaks? These aren’t hypothetical issues: All of these have been used in marathon swims in recent years, are not specifically addressed by English Channel rules, and in and some cases are explicitly allowed by a local association.

Rules define the boundary conditions of the sport - what is and is not a “marathon swim.” Yet as far as I know, there has never been any systematic study of what marathon swimmers actually think, as a matter of public opinion.

Earlier this month Scott Zornig and I conducted a survey of the global marathon swimming community to find out. The survey was promoted via the SBCSA newsletter, the Marathon Swimmers Forum, Facebook, and Twitter. Over 25 days, we received 175 responses from around the world.

Summary of Findings

I. We received responses from a representative sample of marathon swimmers - current, former, and aspiring.

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II(a). Marathon swimmers agree on basic channel-rules attire: traditional porous textile swimsuit (including jammers), goggles, one latex or silicone cap, ear plugs, and nose clips.

II(b). Marathon swimmers agree that substances or devices that protect the swimmer against dangerous marine life (e.g., sharks & jellyfish) – but unambiguously do not enhance performance – are acceptable.

II(c). Marathon swimmers agree that devices or substances that unambiguously enhance speed, buoyancy, or heat retention should NOT be allowed on marathon swims.

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III. Controversial items include stinger suits, swim streamers, bubble caps, and shark divers.

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IV. The more marathon swimming experience a person has, the more likely she/he is to embrace a minimalist approach to swim aids.

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I. We received responses from a representative sample of marathon swimmers - current, former, and aspiring.

To argue that this survey accurately represents the opinion of the marathon swimming community, we must show that the 175 respondents are a representative sample of the community. We can do this in a few ways.

A. Geography

Of the 175 respondents, 71% live in North America, 19% live in the United Kingdom or Ireland, 5% live in Australia or New Zealand, and the remaining 5% live elsewhere.

As a baseline for comparison, here’s how those numbers compare to the unique visitors to the Marathon Swimmers Forum in February.

Another baseline for comparison? The Triple Crown list: as of 2012, 76% are from North America, 10% from the UK+Ireland, 4% from Australia+NZ, 4% from continental Europe, and the rest from elsewhere.

In sum, the survey sample has a lot of North Americans - but then, so does the global marathon swimming community generally.

B. Gender

What about the Triple Crown list? Exactly 60% men, 40% women. Pretty darned close.

C. Self-identification as a marathon swimmer

We asked respondents what they “identify most closely as.” Although we didn’t forbid non-marathon swimmers from taking the survey, we promoted and targeted it primarily at marathon swimmers, because that’s what our primary interest was: What do _marathon swimmers _think?

According to the data, 87% of respondents identified as either a current, former, or aspiring marathon swimmer.

D. Marathon swimming experience

We asked survey respondents about their specific experience in marathon swimming (and other endurance sports). We found that:

1. 90% of survey respondents have swum at least 10km in open water.
2. More than half have swum at least 25km in open water.
3. Almost a third have swum the English Channel.

Interesting sub-finding: Marathon swimmers are not as challenged on terra firma as the stereotypes might suggest. Almost half of respondents have done an Olympic-distance triathlon (or longer), and 30% have run a marathon. In comparison, Runners World estimates the percentage of the U.S. population who have run a marathon at 0.5% (ref).

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II. Marathon swimmers largely agree on what should (and should not) be used in their sport.

Now to the meat of the study. What do marathon swimmers agree on?

Some critics and swim-aid proponents would have you believe the marathon swimming community can’t agree on what their own rules are. The implicit argument is typically: “Therefore, we might as well just let people use anything they want.”

Actually, the marathon swimming community agrees on quite a lot.

A. The marathon swimming community agrees on basic channel-rules attire: traditional porous textile swimsuit (including jammers), goggles, one latex or silicone cap, ear plugs, and nose clips.

B. The marathon swimming community agrees that substances or devices that protect the swimmer against dangerous marine life (e.g., sharks & jellyfish) - but unambiguously do not enhance performance - are acceptable.

More than 75% of survey respondents agreed that the following items are acceptable:

C. The marathon swimming community agrees that devices or substances that unambiguously enhance speed, buoyancy, or heat retention should NOT be allowed on marathon swims.

(Including drafting off the escort boat, which is allowed in the English Channel.)

More than 75% of survey respondents agreed that the following items are NOT acceptable:

D. More moderate consensus exists on the following:

Some thoughts on why there is less consensus on these items:

1. Using boat to shield from wind & waves - improves performance, but is already widely allowed, and it’s unclear how a prohibition could be enforced.
2. Exiting water for safety reasons - allowed in MIMS and Cook Strait, but not elsewhere.
3. Topical substance that retains body heat - does such a substance even exist? Perhaps a confusing question.
4. Multiple caps - allowed by FINA, minimally performance enhancing.
5. Shark sharpshooter - not performance enhancing, but harmful to sharks and thus morally problematic.
6. Topical substance that warms the body - does such a substance exist? Confusing question.

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III. Controversial items: stinger suits, swim streamers, bubble caps, and shark divers.

A. Shark divers. 59/41 (for/against).

B. Bubble caps. 43/57 (for/against).

C. Swim streamers. 46/54 (for/against).

D. Stinger suits. Tie - 50/50. 

(If you must know, the stinger suit vote was 84-yes, 83-no, with 8 no answers.)

**My view: if an item is controversial, it cannot be considered “approved by the sport of ocean swimming.” **At best, it might be considered a “local exception” to a more universal set of rules - for example, the use of streamers in Japan.

If an item is controversial, it is in some way approaching a line in the sand. In marathon swimming, if you’re flirting with this line - trying to find loopholes for some extra edge - quite simply, you’re doing it wrong.

Some stinger suit proponents claim that these enhanced-coverage suits are merely protective, not performance-enhancing - and that therefore they should be allowed on marathon swims.

Personally, I’m not sure about this claim. Couldn’t someone easily produce a stinger suit that _is _performance enhancing? Would we then have to define new rules about what is and is not a performance enhancing stinger suit? Could I put on my old full-body Blueseventy Nero tech suit and call it a “stinger suit”?

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IV. The more marathon swimming experience a person has, the more likely she/he is to embrace a minimalist approach to swim aids.

The data presented so far represent the “collective” opinion of the marathon swimming community. However, within that collective, there is actually quite a diversity of opinions among individuals. For example, one person might think a streamer is OK but a stinger suit is not OK; while another person might think a streamer is not OK while a stinger suit is fine.

This diversity of opinions in the survey sample ranged from:

• One extremely purist/minimalist individual who would only allow a standard cap, goggles, grease, sunblock, boat navigation, limited pace swimming, caffeine, anti-inflammatories, and touch starts. This person would prohibit everything else.
• One extremely liberal-minded individual who would prohibit nothing - i.e., everything should be allowed (a troll, perhaps?).

For each survey respondent, I summed the total number of items the individual would allow - as an ideology index. So the minimalist respondent I mentioned above would get a 9 on the ideology index, while the everything-is-allowed respondent/troll would get a 48.

Here’s how the respondents were distributed according to ideology:

One interesting question is: Why do some people prefer a minimalist approach, while others embrace technology and swim aids?

We would need a much longer survey to tease out the various reasons, but even in this brief survey there is a clear pattern:

The more marathon swimming experience a person has, the more likely she/he is to embrace a minimalist approach to swim aids.

The following chart shows the average “ideology index” score (out of 48) for four groups:

1. People who have never done a marathon swim (27 of 175 total respondents)
2. People who have done a 10km open-water swim but not a 25km (56 of 175)
3. People who have done at least a 25km swim or one of the Triple Crown swims (57 of 175)
4. People who have done two or three of the Triple Crown swims (35 of 175)

The same pattern emerges when we look at people’s opinions on just a single item, for example, the controversial stinger suit.

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Obviously there’s much more we could get into with this data, but for now this report is quite long enough already. And I think I covered the big points. If readers are interested, I will do a follow-up post with additional summary data and analyses, as requested - an “appendix” of sorts. Let me know what you want to know.

For reference, here are screenshots of the original survey (click to enlarge):

End Quote

It has always amazed me how athletes spend such a lot of time trying to stretch the rules and find aids. Channel swimming is a personal competition between the swimmer and the elements. Looking for that extra edge all the time is a negative approach as instead of working within the established parameters you are grasping at straws to get a little more assistance, or confidence.

Once you have started it’s you against the elements; whatever hat you are - or are not wearing.

– Michael Oram

Response to Steve Munatones Commentary

After the publicaion of these results and analysis, Steven Munatones wrote a series of articles on the Daily News of Open Water Swimming, each focusing on a controversial item from the survey:

• The Shark Diver Controversy In Ocean Swimming
  
• Protection Against Stingers Splits Down The Middle
• To Bubble Or Not To Bubble - That Is The Question
• What Is A Stinger Suit?
• Jammin’ Fast In The Open Water
• Marathon Swimming Is A Global Phenomena (sic)

Steve made a variety of interesting points.

Regarding shark divers, he recounted stories of their effectiveness during Diana Nyad’s Cuba-Florida swims, as well as his own swims in Japan. He concludes:

It is our opinion that shark divers can play an important role when sharks are known to exist in the expected course of marathon swimmers. But if marathon swimmers do not want to use a shark diver, the chances of being attacked by a curious or hungry shark remain extremely low.

Regarding stinger suits, Steve writes:

We view use stinger suits are reasonable forms of protection against possible dangers that can, literally, kill a swimmer. […]

Is it an enhancement? Protective swimwear is usually porous and creates tremendous drag for the swimmer. So it certainly does not help the speed of a swimmer and directly leads to a swimmer demonstrating greater strength and stamina.

I would simply respond: While that may be true of current models of stinger suits, who is to say companies won’t develop stinger suits that do directly enhance speed? Could I wear my old full-body Blueseventy Nero tech suit (which clearly enhances speed), and call it a “stinger suit”?

Regarding bubble caps, Steve admits that a bubble cap “feels warmer overall relative to other caps,” but then cites longstanding historical usage of bubble caps in concluding that “use of a bubble cap is not a loophole in the rules; rather, they are part of marathon swimming heritage.” I agree with this statement.

Regarding jammers, Steve makes the valid point that their widespread usage in elite pool swimming is evidence that they must enhance speed, and therefore, “use of jammers run counter to the marathon swimming and channel swimming ethos to not use anything that offers an extra edge or that enhances performance.” It’s perhaps a bit surprising, then, that nearly 80% of survey respondents approved of them.

Finally, Steve analyzed the geographical distribution of marathon swimmers from a few additional angles, to provide perspective on the predominance of North Americans in my survey sample. I agree that the survey probably did over-sample North Americans to some extent, but not unreasonably so.

Thanks again to Steve for the comments.

Other Coverage

The survey analysis is also covered in the April/May 2013 issue of H2Open Magazine. Though I didn’t get a byline, the writing is mine.

Then there was this on the South End Rowing Club Facebook group:

Joe Butler refers to an ongoing controversy at SERC about the use of swim aids in the club “Nutcracker” swims.

There was also a discussion of the survey on the Marathon Swimmers Forum.

Related External Posts

• SBCSA March 2013 newsletter - Commentary by Penny Palfrey on Rules
• Scott Zornig - What’s Wrong with Marathon Swimming?
• Scott Zornig - What’s Wrong with Marathon Swimming, Part II
• Scott Zornig - Inconsistencies in Marathon Swimming Rules
• Scott Zornig - Technology and the Future of Marathon Swimming
• Jamie Patrick - Confused
• LoneSwimmer - This post has been approved by The Sport of Open Water Swimming
• LoneSwimmer - Two Golden Rules of Open Water and/or Marathon Swims
• LoneSwimmer - Comments on Diana Nyad’s Heat Drip device