Assaulted in the Swimming Pool - Worth Reporting?

[RedEcho]

Name changed in case identifying.

Today I was at my local pool, which is always very quiet around this time of year. There is always one lane up, the pool was empty apart from one man swimming very slow breastroke up the middle of the lane. I headed for the lane, he saw me and so I started swimming up one side to go in the usual clockwise direction that is standard in lanes. I do a reasonably quick, efficient front crawl. The third time of doing this, he sort of paused as I passed him on the other side (I could see him under the water) and then I felt a pressure on my left shoulder and he pushed me down under the water.

I had a couple of moments of panic where you can't breathe and then he must have removed his hand and I bobbed up. Then he started shouting at me, I don't even know what. I told him to leave me alone. The lifeguard did nothing. I resumed swimming and tried not to make a fuss. He seemed to disappear after that.

At one point in my swim, I stopped to get my pull bouy at the end of the lane and he must have been in the showers opposite because the same man walked to the front of the lane and started shouting at me again. Something to do with swimming that he seemed to take great objection to and he asked me what I thought I was doing. I called the lifeguard over and he was rather blase and claimed that we had swam into each other. We had not. I actually cried out in shock quite loudly when I surfaced and the lifeguard admitted hearing this. The man deliberately assaulted me by putting his hand on my shoulder and pushing me under, and there had been plenty of room to pass. I told the man, repeatedly to leave me alone and said that I was here to swim. I had to shout at him 5 times to leave me alone while the lifeguard did nothing. Eventually he moved away.

Once I'd finished swimming I spoke to the lifeguard and asked him what he had seen/heard. He again claimed that we had swam into each other and was prevaricative when I asked why he hadn't told the man to leave me alone and why he didn't seem to understand what that meant. I realised I was getting nowhere with him as he was probably sticking up for the other man and left.

I think what happened is that the man in the lane expected me to acknowledge him, chat to him a bit or something (I really feel uncomfortable talking to strangers in pools wearing just a swimsuit) and when I ignored him and just got on with swimming, he decided to do something to draw my attention to him, like a "she's not getting away with me ignoring me".

I'm absolutely fuming though. You feel so vulnerable when you're in a swimsuit in an almost empty pool and it was a proper assault. I mean I'm not injured, but it was horrible. I won't use that pool again, I've heard of other people having similar troubles there and I'll use a different one further away, but is there any point at all in reporting this to the police? The lifeguard is obviously going to be of little or no help and the man is only going to claim I swam into him or some other made up story.

Lifeguard here. If that happens again insist they lifeguard calls the duty manager to poolside. (They won't mind). Bear in mind that a lot of lifeguards are only 16/17 and find it difficult to referee arguments between adults. Some regular customers are troublemakers and all the staff are scared or at least wary of them. (This man sounds like one of them).

Definitely contact the manager.

Sounds awful OP. I swim regularly and get fed up with the behaviour of some of the men. While most are just there to swim there is often a man spreading over a whole lane or as in last week trying to chat up women when they stop for a rest. I haven't experienced anything as awful as you but could easily imagine it.

What a horrible experience. Definitely report it. To the police and pool management. Ask about CCTV.

You say you know of other people who have had trouble at the same pool. Do you know them well enough to ask them more about their experiences and encourage them to come forward too? Even if you have no evidence, if the same person is doing this kind of thing often then the police may be able to build a case and do something to protect his future victims.

Nice victim blaming- proper swimmers swim in lanes….

Report OP and to the manager at the pool. That lifeguard isn’t doing his job properly ( most don’t sadly, they are after an easy life- I was one and only a very few of us actively supervised swimmers) and if that guy comes in regularly they should know him and prevent him approaching you again. I’m sorry this happened, it sounds very frightening.

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I swam several times a week lane swimming until recently as a pool member.
If he deliberately pushed you under then of course report it.

I think a lot of women victim-blame because the thought if something like this happening randomly, so therefore could happen to them no matter what they do or don't do, is too scary to deal with.
Unfortunately it can and does happen.

Nothing as scary and yours OP but I was walking through Christmas crowds a few years ago, actually with DH, and a man with his partner deliberately dug his elbow into my side hard as he passed. The sense of rage, indignation and violation at even that small incident surprised me.

God, they're all out tonight. Report this man OP. And you are not being too hard on the pool attendant. Aggressive men intimidating women in swimming pools are common and exactly what they are meant to be looking out for.

You really must report this. I've read a similar story before somewhere.

How awful for you. I'd report to pool management and police.

I agree with others - although not the ones asking why you didn't swim outside the lane because victim blaming much - you should report it to the police if you feel comfortable doing it but definitely to whoever runs the pool. I'm almost as annoyed with the lifeguard as the nutter because it's his job to keep people safe and even if he did think that you had collided when it came to you being shouted at he should have intervened and the fact that he only came over when you called him despite this man shouting at you again ... he's utterly useless and should at least get a warning about his inability to do his job properly. The insane, scary man should be banned from that pool and if it's one that's in a group, then all of them.

I'm really sorry this happened to you. I would have been really scared in your situation I think you should take care of yourself because the shock will probably remain with you for a while.

@RedEcho Sadly, I don't think this is an uncommon situation.
A female relative swan competitively at national level until she got bored with living outside of normal hours. She hasn't swum in a public pool for years because her preference is to swim a hundred lengths fast.
Men who can't keep up have kicked and punched her in the past. It's not the OP, it's a man who's not as strong a swimmer feeling that he's being shown up.

I would ask at the pool, tell them you want to make an entry yourself in their Accident Report Book - that an unknown male swimmer held you under the water (then they should take that seriously). Should also have CCTV to be able to identify him.

I’m with you, I endure issues in the pool virtually every week…
(man grabbed my calf and dragged me backwards to the side)

And men can’t even consider getting in any other lane, that isn’t labelled as the “fast lane”…

I have also had success with some subtle subconscious things, just to assert my space with men who think they can come along and bully me out:
I park a large pair of macho camo-print crocs with my water bottles, paddles and other “accessories” at the end of my lane- deliberately.

(Swapped out the previous Barbie pink crocs - men were arriving poolside, doing elaborate stretches on the side to announce their arrival, and doing all they could to bully women out of the space they wanted).

This Should be unbelievable, as a male swimmer I can't even imagine this happening to me. But I do believe you, because of the society we live in and the harmful way we are taught to deal with things.
Ignore the victim blamers, that's on them. And report if you can manage, odds on he's a known criminal (assault is a criminal offence) and you just have to cross your fingers that it will get to someone who cares and not someone cut from the same cloth.
Good luck!

So much gaslighting on this thread it's unreal. Perhaps we have visitors.

OP: Please do report it, both to the sports centre and the police. If nothing else, because there will be a record of it on file when he does it to the next woman.

Definitely report. A man who behaves like this will be regularly assaulting other women

There is probably cctv of this incident and if the pool/police bother they may be able to identify him from his oahment method at entry.

I would outnin a formal complaint to management re you were physically and verbally assaulted and the lifeguard refused help.

Oh theres no way he would have done it to a man!

Ps sorry about the victim blamers on this thread 🙄

I really get the impression that all the incidents were caused by different people. Obviously, I can't be sure though.

Report the man, report the lifeguard.

Ask that cctv is saved - in many places its overwritten a day, a week, a month later.

Some people get aggressive/entitled in a pool. My wife, a regular swimmer, has suffered from lane rage on a number of occasions - but nothing like this.

Definitely report it. I would guess the lifeguard was dismissive because he didn't want to deal with the issue, wasn't looking at that split second or was intimidated by the guy too. In any case, he's not doing his job properly. I'm sorry you had such a shit experience.

It’s easy to know exactly what to do with hindsight. At the time it happened the OP would have been in a state of shock and not necessarily acting logically.

That makes sense. Its such a breach of the "social rules" that we like to assume that everyone is reasonable enough to follow.

Honestly, nothing happened that gave this man any excuse to do this. There weas no contact prior to it happening, nothing. There was plenty of room to pass. He was quite an old man, late sixties I'd say, but large and strong. The sudden resort to assaulting me from absolutely nothing was really shocking. The fact that it happened in a public place when I was wearing only a swimsuit makes it all the worse.

Theres actually so much gaslighting on this thead that it makes me think that reporting it will be pointless, because I will be gaslighted then as well.