Swimming Photo Gallery 3

Timothy Carlson images of mid-swim, late swim and the swim exit: By the middle of the swim leg of a triathlon, competitors usually spread out and settle into their own individual rhythm and speed. But in highly competitive events like the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, swimmers are sure to bump and grind into one another right up until the ramp to the swim-to-bike transition. In open water swimming, some adept triathletes catch a wave and body surf in for a last minute advantage. Once they start running on the beach, some like Craig Walton can high-step through the shallow waves and take off like rockets. But even the greatest swimmers in the business can, like Andy Potts at Clearwater in 2008 or Joanna Zeiger at that same race, show the effort invested in the first leg.
While olympic caliber swimmers like Sheila Taormina can blast off alone, they usually play the swim conservatively to save energy for the bike and the run.

The camera freezes a plume of water flying back of one of thousands of strokes propelling this Ultraman competitor through a 10 kilometer swim.

Rounding the buoy at 2005 ITU Age Group Worlds in honolulu.

Swimming against the current in the shallow Russian River at Half Vineman-2001.

New York’s Hudson River can propel New York City Triathlon swimmers down current in 11 minutes for the 1500 meters. Or it can get clogged with pollutants after a rain and force cancellation of the swim as happened one year.

Water Polo anyone? The funnel narrows near the end when swimmers near the end at Ironman Hawaii.

An epic ribbon of swimmers approach shore at Ironman Coeur d’Alene.

Ironman Hawaii swimmers used to finish hidden from the crowds on the other side of Kailua Pier as they finished their 2.4-mile Kona swim.

At the elite men’s swim at the 2007 ITU World Championship in Hamburg, Germany, elite men clamber up and over one another at the swim exit like desperate seals.

All time stars like Michellie Jones, Ken Glah and Carol Montgomery run out of the surf in Santos Brazil in 1998.

The Under 23 men swarm onto the beach at Vancouver during the 2008 ITu World Championship.

The great Craig Walton exits the swim at the 2003 Los Angeles Triathlon with a huge lead.

Andy Potts looks tired after finishing the swim at the 2008 Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater, Florida. Maybe it’s because he debuted at Ironman Hawaii a mere month before.

Under 23 men exit the 1999 ITU World Championship swim in Montreal

Brian Fleischmann aka The Flash exits Boulder 5430 swim in a spray of sunlit water

Joanna Zeiger gets her bearings after 2008 ironman 70.3 swim in Clearwater. Must have worked – Zeiger won her first world title later that morning.

Early morning light in Florianopolis exiting the Ironman Brazil swim in 2004.

Chinese competitor exits Shinsanling Reservoir at 2007 Beijing World Cup. The reservoir offered a spectacular, stadium-style setting for the Olympic swim, with a gorgeous ancient pagoda as background.

Joanna Zeiger helped out of swim at 2000 US Olympic Trials in Dallas, where she finished second and won the final US women’s Olympic Triathlon slot.

Greg Bennett exiting the 2000 Sydney ITU World Cup swim. Bennett was off form that year, but made the Aussie team and finished fourth at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Six-time Ironman Hawaii champion Mark Allen teaches age grouper Lynelle Paulick the mysteries of proper stroke entry at a 1995 Multisport School of Champions camp in Boulder.