I was complained by two ladies in swimming pool

[user1472754004]

I am a regular swimmer. Got complained by two ladies who swim slowly and chatting side by side. The pool was busy and I had to occasionally swim between them. They asked the staff to talk to me saying they were there before me and I should move over in stead swim in between them. It was only a 20 meter public swim but they two occupied about two lane and swim very slowly. Be frank, I hate people swim and chat. When I swim freestyle I try to look but there might be one or two seconds that I was close to them but they have their heads up, insist swim side by side. I ask the staff, should he talk to them not blocking the whole two lanes? Annoyed! I probably need to get up at six to do the lane swim instead.

I've stopped going to pools because of this chat-swimming, and I'm not even a fast swimmer. Lifeguards aren't paid enough to enforced any rules in many pools its true. In one leisure centre, there were two pools. One for slow fun social swimming and one for lane swimming. But everyone wanted to swim in the lane swimming one, even if they just stood at the end chatting. So I stopped going.

Them being there first doesn't give them any priority. They can't have been that close together if you managed to swim between them a few times? Unless you pushed through a small gap, which is what made them complain? Difficult to judge from the OP who was being Unreasonable

I find it difficult to imagine they were taking up two lanes worth of space and still chatting. If they were close enough to chat then I can't imagine there was enough space to swim between without coming across as a complete arsehole.... (esp doing crawl)

I do feel if you swim in an open session then swimming around folks is just part and parcel of it. I often swim in the open part rather than the lane in ours( I'm a slow coach) and just accept I need to change course sometimes. However side by side swimmers in a lane are a pain in bum and should be banned.

@limitedperiodonly It's like crazy-flavoured Cup-A-Soup. this has made me proper full-on belly laugh because it's so true! Apart from me of course! You do get some very odd people when you go swimming. I was once signalled at by a lady to get out of her way as she was thundering past me...in the slow lane!!

Was it the Prince of Whales?

It's "COMPLAINED ABOUT". Not "complained". .

She said they were taking up two lanes, a 1/4 of the pool. Which means there were 8 lanes, not 4

Well most lanes are two-way. So if they were blocking an entire lane (by swimming side-by-side) and taking up a quarter of the pool, then that would equate to four (two-way) lanes.

Innit.

I always swim round people who are chatting. I'm not good enough to go in the proper lanes so I have to just suck it up. You were BU and a bit rude. Sorry.

I don't understand what you mean by "hate people swim and chat" or "Got complained"

It's "COMPLAINED ABOUT". Not "complained"

Congratulations both of you, on speaking English better than a clearly non native speaker and then making nasty, snide, thinly veiled racist comments off the back of it. You must be proud of yourselves.

They can swim how they like but equally so can you.

I'm not sure about that. Try doing a length of butterfly and see how many moan.

I've done it a couple of times for a laugh. Not everybody did.

OP has said it wasn't lane swimming.

So yes, OP, YWBVU to swim between two friends chatting / swimming together. It is your responsibility to go round.

They WNBU to complain to staff about you if they didn't have the confidence to challenge you in person.

Of course you look up every 3rd (or what suits you) stroke when you are swimming in a pool you don't have sole use of. What an odd thing to say.

Congratulations both of you, on speaking English better than a clearly non native speaker and then making nasty, snide, thinly veiled racist comments off the back of it. You must be proud of yourselves.

Not sure OP is clearly non native English speaker, apart from the missing words her spelling and vocabulary are excellent. It's just the missing words....

Ask the pool to put in lanes at busy times / the times that serious exercise swimmers use the pool.

Swimming is a social / cultural / leisure activity as well as exercise and if they wish to float about in a flamingo rubber ring they have as much right to be there as you.

Ask the pool to implement lanes. Leaving a ‘non lane swimming ‘ area at one side.

Not sure OP is clearly non native English speaker, apart from the missing words her spelling and vocabulary are excellent. It's just the missing words....

I'm not going to critique the OP like some people, but he/she is clearly a non-native English speaker.

@Wannabeyorkshirelass you don’t actually know for sure if OP is a non-native English speaker.

Don’t throw around accusations of racism for fun.

@Wannabeyorkshirelass stop with the high hands I know! You know fuck all. No spelling mistake and a very English saying "to be frank" in the first post.

As PP said racism is serious and if you accused me of being racist I'd be furious!

English is my second/third language. If I wasn’t clear enough, please forgive me. Actually, I don’t think I swam between them, I was accused so. I remember I was once very close to them while we face to face. Her arm touched my body but I didn’t hit her at all. Forget about it. I will go lane swim. Wish everybody a nice evening!

Thanks for clarifying that OP, maybe that makes you sounder ruder than you mean. But yes go to the private pool or lane swimming otherwise the same thing will happen.

Sound not sounder

You were out of order OP. If the lanes weren't roped off then it's a free for all and you have to swim round people, not push between them. In ours we get people with disabilities and lots of elders meandering around in the weekdays. Luckily we have half the pool roped off for lane swimming but unfortunately slow people go in the fast lane and vice versa. I had to tell off two women who joined my lane and proceeded to swim alongside each other chatting. Utter fuckwits. They wanted me to piss me off enough that I moved out of the lane. Had to do 50 lengths just to prove a point - almost killed me as its a 50 metre pool!

Hate other people in the swimming pool but love swimming. The amount of filthy fuckers who get in without showering despite there being notices telling them to do so makes me seethe!

Rant over.

Don’t throw around accusations of racism for fun.

I don't think racism is fun. That's why I will call it out every single time even if it makes people 'furious'. And pretending not to understand someone when the meaning is clear or correcting them obnoxiously is obviously racist (not to mention unnecessary). And yes the OP is obviously a non native speaker.

English is my second/third language. If I wasn’t clear enough, please forgive me.

You've nothing to feel sorry about. I don't think many of us are fluent in three languages. It's not ok that people picked on your English skills in such a snide way.

I'd make sure you contacted the management telling them you were going somewhere else and suggest they train their staff accordingly.