Can Competitive Swimmers Hear the Crowd Cheering When Swimming?

This question originally appeared on Quora.

By Carly Geehr, former USA Swimming National Team Member

Definitely! Especially in breaststroke, when there's such a huge sound differential between having your head completely underwater and completely out of the water for a longer period of time than the other strokes. It certainly depends on the decibels, though. I imagine the crowd in London during a WR swim is audible to a much greater extent than, say, the parents at an 8 & under summer league competition. But those kids can absolutely still hear the cheers!

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