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Anna and swimming |   |
Anna is from Australia and is a carrier of haemophilia A.
Questions and answers
What do you do to keep yourself fit?
Ha, that must be some kind of joke! At the moment, my daily life keeps me on my feet most of the time running around the university campus to lectures and tutorials, and trying to keep up with an endless pile of commitments. When I have time I do make the effort to walk to or from university. To be honest, I do not have the time to commit to any fitness regime, as my timetable is pretty full on. I plan to establish a fitness program for myself once I have finished off my studies at the end of the year, and have settled into a job.
Do you participate in any kind of sports?
At this moment, I do not participate in any kind of sport.
Have you ever had to quit a sport due to your bleeding disorder?
As a carrier, there have never been any issues of my having to quit playing a sport. I have always found that I am able to participate in any sports I like. Through the years I have participated in many sports, including netball, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, swimming, athletics, cross country, baseball, and soccer.
Have your parents/doctor interfered with your choice of sports?
As a carrier, there has never been any need for either my parents of doctors to interfere with my choices in the sports I play. As a child, it was always left up to me to select which sports I chose to participate in, resulting in my playing a number of different sports through my school years.
Read more about Anna in the previous article, which is part of the "Around the world" theme.
Swimming
Swimming has been known to humans since prehistoric times. The first evidence of swimming are drawings on the walls of the "cave of swimmers" in Egypt. Reference to swimming is also made in several ancient writings, including Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The first swimming competitions were held around 1800 in Europe. In 1844 at a swimming competition in London, a number of Native Americans took part. The Americans swam in a style similar to front crawl, while the British used the slower style, called breaststroke. The new style seemed barbaric to the British gentlemen, so it was to be another 50 years before it gained acceptance in Europe. Swimming was included in the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens. Around 1936 the butterfly style was invented and offered a speed improvement over breaststroke. It was later accepted as a style in its own right and banned from breaststroke competions.
Famous swimmers include Johnny Weissmüller, who was the first to swim 100m in less than 1 minute. During his 10-year career, he never lost a race. Incidentally, he was later to become famous for playing the title role in several Tarzan movies. In the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Mark Spitz set a record by winning seven gold medals - a record that still stands.
Photo: Wojciech Kowalski
What the doctors say
Swimming is the ideal sport for people with bleeding disorders. Because of the bouyancy in the water, the strain on muscles and joints is minimised, while at the same time all the major muscle groups are exercised. The risk of having a bleed is considered extremely low, if proper technique is learned. Breast stroke and back crawl should be approached with care or avoided, since the explosive burst in breast stroke can cause overstretching of the knees, while back crawl is hard on the shoulder joint, that is moved to its extreme limit.
As far as burning fat goes, research shows that swimming is not the best option. Apparently, having your body cooled by the water causes an increase in appetite, so all the energy that is used while swimming is regained when eating afterwards.
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