There are some quarantine sports(-adjacent) videos that fill one’s soul with joy. There are some that remind you of the intense and ridiculous power of human ingenuity. And there are some that make every single muscle in your body tense up in sheer horror.
Here is one from that last category, from Russian swimmer Yuliya Yefimova:
Might try this later...
— Patrick Corrigan (@PatrickCorrigan) April 17, 2020
Russian Olympic swimmer Julia Evimova can’t go to the pool due to #COVID19. So she practices swimming on the kitchen table at home with someone holding her feet! pic.twitter.com/qRV6TyrCmL
I have to admit I’d never considered how one might practice swimming without a pool before. Now that I have, I regret it, for this knowledge is going to make my abs ache for days. The core strength required here is obscene.
We should mention that Yefimova was suspended for 16 months and stripped of her 2013 European Championships medals after a failed drug test in 2014, and she was also involved in the more general Russian doping scandal at the 2016 Olympics. But given that kitchen swimming is, as far as we know, strictly non-competitive, we shall allow her participation regardless.
Anyway, don’t try this at home, because unless you’re an Olympic-calibre athlete you will fail, and you will be in pain for a while.