No one loves swimming more than a swimmer yet no one hates swimming more than a swimmer. Swimmers will complain about their sport all day but will fiercely defend it if anyone else tries to put it down. Below is an in depth analysis of why swimming is the best and worst sport in the world.

1. Early morning practices

A small part of you died every time your alarm went off before 5 a.m.

2. Weekend invitationals

RIP your social life, your weekend plans usually included day long swim meets

3. Christmas break practices

While everyone else was at home enjoying hot chocolate and Christmas movies you spent your days working your butt off in the pool because as we all know, Christmas break training is crucial for the off season

4. Less than stellar pool conditions

Green pools, too much chlorine, too little chlorine, power outages mid-practice, you've swam through it all

5. Dry-land workouts

Swimmers prefer the water for a reason, so on-land workouts are especially painful

6. Extremely tight suits

If you don't need at least two other people to help you get it on, it's not tight enough

7. Crowded meet warm-ups

Once you squeeze the entire team into one lane all hopes of getting a decent warm up instantly vanish

8. Long meets

At best, three hours; at worst, 10 (or more) hours

9. Cold pools

There's nothing quite like the feeling of jumping into an icy pool that instantly takes your breath away

10. Swimmer's diet

One of the best parts about the swimming season is being able to eat whatever you want because you know you will work it off in practice later

11. Fragile cap and goggles

There was always a sense of sadness when you had to throw away a torn cap or broken goggles

12. Hair freezing

Stepping outside with wet hair in the middle of winter=instant frozen hair

13. Having to swim your worst event

The anxiety you experienced in anticipation of the event was always worse than the actual race

14. Repeating a set multiple times

You worked as hard as you could to finish the set only to look realize you have to swim it all again

15. Taper

Inarguably the best week of the season when you finally got to slow down and see all your hard work come to fruition