Open Water Swimming

The marathon of swimming, the Olympic 10km open water event is a mass start (60-70 swimmers) in a natural body of water, with no lanes, no lane ropes, and swimmers "sighting" (lifting their head to look at buoys) every 3-6 strokes. The "feeding station" (coaches on a pontoon with feeding sticks), drafting (saving 20% energy), and the violent turn around buoys make it a 2-hour, 10km gladiator fight where the only lane is the one you make.