Jim the Swim

I’m going to tell you about a guy called Jim. Jim is one of the people I swam internationally with for ten years. He wasn’t really my closest friend on the team, but I suppose we did spend the most time together! This was because our swim speed was pretty similar so we shared a lane whenever we went away training or were warming up at competitions.

Now Jim is quite difficult to describe. He was one of the most overweight swimmers I ever knew (retired now) and definitely had learning disabilities. However, it was possible to have really surprising and in-depths conversations with him. He was Scottish, with a speech impairment to boot – understanding him was no mean feat. He was one of the best people to train with and one of the worst!

One of the best because he always wanted to beat me so drove me to swim faster. One of the worst because he had NO sense of direction.

Everyone who swims knows that if you’re sharing a pool lane, you swim up one side and down the other. Not Jim; oh no. Despite twenty years of swimming experience, he could not follow the rules. So, he always, without fail, swam down the middle OR on the opposite side.

As I said, he was a big guy. Getting wacked by one of his arms was not something you forget. He had no idea where he was going. Yet, when he hit you, his aim was impeccable!