to find it minging that people don't shower before they swim?

[AuntyDiluvian]

Just been swimming in my local pool and it was really quite grim. Bits of 'matter' floating around in the water (people-dust/phlegmlike white stringiness) and a choking fug of deodorant and perfume overhanging the pool. Every time I looked up to see a new person coming in from the changing area they were distinctly dry and unshowered.
This is really getting to me and I'm not sure if I'm on my own here. What do you think? Am I a tiresome clean-freak who should mind her own business and stop watching other people get in the pool? Or is this the unhygienic behaviour of a fetid and disgusting local population who should be made to shower by the people running the leisure centre?
AIBU?

totally yuk!
my gym has a sign up saying you MUST shower before entering the pool. if you don't they come running over and call you out on it.

YES Christmas, that's exactly what I want to see. Basically, people being told off / gently steered towards the showers.

YANBU. It is really bad to not shower before entering the pool - or go from the sauna/steam room/spa pool into the main pool. Your body sweat reacts with the chlorine to produce trichloroethane (I think). This is what causes respiratory problems at the pool. Apparently the chlorine smell at the pool is actually the trichloroethane - so the stronger the chlorine smell, the dirtier the water.

You can't control what others do. You need to give up swimming if you feel that strongly. The idea of sharing, what is essentially a large bath, with dozens of other people is inherently disgusting no matter how much chlorine is used.

YABU - that's why they put chlorine in the water.

All the leisure centres I have visited have signs up asking people to shower first but hardly anybody does. I always shower before getting into the pool as it is the right thing to do. I don't understand why people don't shower before getting in but then I also don't understand why some people wee in the pool rather than walking to the toilet (yes, I believe people actually do that).

Yes it freak me when people leave steam room and get straight in the pool.

in the 70's didnt they have at public pools a running shower and foot bath ypu had to walk through to get from changing room to pool?

But when people shower before swimming they're not properly cleaning themselves are they? All they're doing is wetting themselves so not sure how that makes them significantly cleaner than if they hadn't bothered?

what difference does a quick 30 second dampening under luke warm water with no soap make? really?

TBH it doesn't bother me at all. I think Pools are kept as hygienic as they can be and I doubt many people turn up completely filthy.

People DO go under the shower at the pool I go to - but they just stand under the running water for a couple of minutes, if that, and then go into the pool. I doubt that has much effect on cleaning them properly if they are that minging!

I always have a good shower before I go to the pool and don't always go under the shower at the pool before swimming if there are none free.

You are far more at risk from nasty things by using cash machines - public door handles, and handling money than you are from the pool.

I have never seen anything nasty floating about in our pool - If yours has those things you mention - complain!

Hidden & Sam - yes that is a good point, that the whole thing is pretty disgusting so perhaps it's best just not to think about it. I was wondering if this was a nationwide non-showering thing or if I was just in a dirty town.
Should point out perhaps that I did manage to have a swim and am not sitting at home now in a bath of bleach.

I am always struck by the contrast between British and German public swimming pools. Uk pools as you describe. Few if any shower. Filthy showers, filthy changing areas, staff standing around chatting, rules not enforced. German pools are a complete contrast. Everyone showers. There are few if any foreign bodies floating around. Changing areas are impeccable with staff mopping and cleaning throughout the day. Both sets of staff on minimum wages and German pools cheaper than their Uk equivalents.
I think it is related to the public/ private divide in Uk. A critical mass of people buy their way out of public facilities by going to private clubs and those that remain tolerate expensive, poorly managed facilities. Once a critical filthiness stage is reached no-one bothers any more. You see the same with education and health care in UK.

I try but the showers at our pool are pitiful dribbles. There's no soap and, even if there was, I'm hardly going to start scrubbing sweaty crevices in public.

aunty can you find a different pool? You one sounds gross.
My two local ones ask people to shower - few do, but the pool, showers, and changing facilities are all clean and fine.

I note that before swim classes none of the children shower, so maybe that's where we need to start teaching good practice - get the teachers to line them all up and shower before they enter the pool.

You see, Fairylights, in general I'm totally in agreement. Towels are changed weekly round here and I don't keep a particularly clean house. Which is why I wondered if my attitude to swim-showers was a weird overreaction.
I suppose this is why threads about things like towel-washing will always be so divisive - there's a wide range of 'standards' and disgust is quite a strong feeling.
Also I think the tone of my OP misfired; I meant to exaggerate my reaction slightly to acknowledge it was a bit much, but then it came out all hysterical. OH WELL.

But why is a pre-swim shower a good thing to do? What purpose does it serve? Have to admit I rarely shower before swimming but that's probably a throwback to the days when I used to train and we'd do strecthes etc on the poolside before getting in the water. If we'd been wet already we'd have frozen!

I don't because the showers are freezing and pathetic.

think its odd to worry about a quick rinse down before getting in pool. People pee in pools

I have never showered and never will
dds swim four times a week and noone showers beforehand
noone gets ill from the pool

Id never go swimming dirty id shower at home but i see no point in getting a quick blast from the communal shower. I see your point tho- maybe we should all be properly getting showered before entering with soap?

I'm always a bit baffled as to what a 20-second shower before swimming achieves, if I'm honest. As others have said, the water is tepid at best and you're clothed and not using soap.

Swimming pools do contain detritus, but you're swimming in it, not drinking it. Chlorine stops it being bacterially dangerous. Yes it's a bit gross to think about it what's actually in the water, but unless you habitually swallow chunks of debris while swimming it's not going to do you any harm.

I shower afterwards

don't want to smell of chlorine all day and also like to get it out of my hair

I'd be a wrinkled prune if I had to scrub myself with soap before as well

But even a quick dunk under a not-great shower in the changing rooms will rinse off most of one's deodorant, for instance, don't you think? Even if you shower first at home I imagine most people then put on deodorant.
Hmm, maybe I just have a problem with deodorant... (stinky hippy)

my deodorant could survive a nuclear attack
a quick rinse wouldn't shift it