Burning Skin or Itching at Swim Meets

We received this email from Dr. Andrew Chadeayne, inventor of SwimSpray (a SwimSwam partner. It has some useful information about feeling your best on race day, especially if your next race day is a championship meet.

Dear Mel,

I am writing to you because I know that swimmers’ skin takes a beating, especially during big meets. I thought the information below could help.

During swim meets, aquatic directors increase the amount of chlorine added to the pool water. They use more chlorine during meets because more swimmers use the pool during meets. This chlorine boost is a good thing. The increased chlorine is necessary to keep the pool healthy for swimming during periods of high usage.

Unfortunately for the swimmers, chlorine side-effects are the worst at swim meets. Because of increased chlorine, swimmers are exposed to higher levels of chlorine during meets.

Plus, swimmers often attend multiple sessions per day and swim multiple times per session. Over the course of a championship meet, a swimmer’s skin can become raw and irritated. And that’s before we even discuss shaving.

Many swimmers experience “chlorine burn” during championship meets. Chlorine burn (sometimes called chlorine sensitivity or even chlorine allergy) feels like irritated, dry, chapped, or stinging, tight skin. Sometimes it itches. Sometimes a rash develops. Practically speaking, this chlorine burn is probably not the end of the world. But, it’s the last thing that a swimmer needs while trying to grab an hour nap on the last day of a championship meet. Championship meets are hard enough. Nap time should be sacred.

Fortunately, swimmers no longer need to experience chlorine burn. Chlorine burn can be easily prevented by rinsing with vitamin C in the shower after each pool session. Here’s how: After each session, use 30 sprays of SwimSpray in the shower. Done. No more chlorine burn. Enjoy your nap and focus on finals.

For swimmers with particularly dry skin, I would also recommend using a lotion after getting the chlorine off. I am partial to lotions with vitamin E because vitamin E is an antioxidant, which helps repair chlorine’s negative effects. Swimmers should use the lotion after neutralizing the chlorine on their skin. Otherwise, the lotion just smears the chlorine around, which is why it releases a waft of chlorine smell.

I think that SwimSpray could be especially helpful to swimmers at big meets, when they are exposed to high chlorine concentrations. On race day you want everything to be just right. There’s no need to have irritated skin.

Hopefully some of your readers will think about using SwimSpray at times of high chlorine exposure. We’d love to be a small part of a big meet success story.

About SwimSpray

SwimSpray was invented by Dr. Andrew Chadeayne, a former Princeton University swimmer and chemistry Ph.D. from Cornell University. Tired of smelling like chlorine after his swimming workouts, Andrew set out remove chlorine from hair and skin ( SwimSpray works where so many other chlorine removal products (e.g., swimmers’ shampoos) have failed previously because SwimSpray’s all-natural vitamin C based formula breaks this bond, neutralizing the chlorine, and allowing it to be washed away with your favorite soap or shampoo.

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Swimming News courtesy of SwimSpray, a SwimSwam partner.