What Your Lane Order Says About You
What Your Lane Order Says About You
By Mike Gustafson//Correspondent
Throughout my swim career, I’ve experienced every facet of the hierarchical stratum of the Lane Order:
I’ve been the Last Person in the Lane — that guy the faster swimmers passive-aggressively flip-turn over and think, “Will this dude switch lanes already?” I’ve been in the gruesome Middle Pack: that wild free-for-all collective where hardly any rules apply, where feet and fists fling into each other’s faces, where each swimmer just tries as best they can to keep rank. And I’ve been a Lane Leader: the army general of the lane, responsible for interval adherence, motivation maintenance, and aptitude accordance. The Lane Leader is also known, during any Game of Lanes, as the King of the Lane. And like any game of King (or Queen) of the Mountain, that swimmer churns as fast as he or she can, trying to subdue challengers.
Throughout a swimmer’s career, most endure many Lane Order changes and position shuffling, such as from fourth to third. Each lane throughout the season is like Game of Thrones. Every swimmer experiences the Game of Lanes: Spending a season straining to become Lane Leader, only to be overthrown on the final practice before taper.
Here is a guide explaining the characters during the season-long Game of Lanes:
