Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!sunybcs!boulder!binkley
From: binkley@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Jon Binkley)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Fat Swimmers
Keywords: "but, Why?"
Message-ID: <4122@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 18 Oct 88 15:55:36 GMT
References: <78300004@p.cs.uiuc.edu> <421@geovision.UUCP> <1504@maccs.McMaster.CA>
Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU
Reply-To: binkley@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Jon Binkley)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 24

In article <1504@maccs.McMaster.CA>, kenm@maccs.McMaster.CA (...Jose) writes:

>>In article <78300004@p.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>>[...]
>>I seem to remember reading a table that said world-class marathoners
>>average 8.5% body fat, and swimmers average 12+% bodyfat.  Does
>>someone know the REAL (i.e. researched/verified/published) answer to
>>this question?
>>

>	Several articles have commented on why it may be helpful to 
>a swimmer to have extra body fat, but any ideas on HOW they develop this?
>	Do they peruposely put on the weight, or is it  
>possibly a response to the prolonged exposure to cold?  I would imagine
>it to be intenttionally gained... any one know better?

I don't know better, but as long as we're still imagining here...

I would imagine that it's selected for unintentionally.  Someone with
not much body fat would not be as good a swimmer as someone with
"enough" body fat (for the buoyancy and hydrodynamic reasons already
imagined here) and would therefore never become "world-class".

Jon Binkley