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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.