They’ve become an internet sensation – for doing close to doing nothing at all!
Lifeguards at the Olympic aquatics training and competition venues in Rio De Janeiro have captured worldwide attention in the form of viral videos and memes across social media and scores of news reports online and in print. The reason for the widespread attention: the inescapable irony and some might say absurdity, of having lifeguards on hand to potentially rescue the word’s greatest swimmers, athletes who almost certainly are safer in the water than the guards themselves.
On August 4, prior to the game’s opening ceremony, the New York Times ran a story titled “Lifeguards at the Olympic Pool? ‘Yes, It’s Necessary’”.
The piece featured an image of a lifeguard who appeared painfully bored as he sat poolside watching a competitor ready himself for the water. That image has since become iconic in the viral frenzy that has followed, prompting a cavalcade of humorous and satirical spins poking fun at the poolside futility.
On Monday mornings, we are all a little like the lifeguard at the #olympics. #thestruggleisreal pic.twitter.com/VS03tivztv
— Jacob Long (@JacobLong_KSDK) August 8, 2016
Redundant:
— Mark Garnett (@MarkGarnett1) August 8, 2016
Adjective
not or no longer needed or useful; superfluous.
"Being a lifeguard at the swimming during the olympics"
According to the Times and numerous other subsequent dispatches on the seemingly unpurposed guards, there are approximately 75 working the Olympic swimming venues. Why? FINA, swimming’s international governing body does not require lifeguards at Olympic pools, but it does say that such facilities must comply with local safety regulations. As it turns out, Rio has an ordinance that requires lifeguards at all public pools measuring more than six-by-six meters.
For their part, the lifeguards themselves seem to have an appropriate perspective and even sense of humor about the unusual job, especially when considering the idea of actually having to save a swimmer like 19-time gold medalist, Michael Phelps.
“I’m dreaming of that possibility,” Anderson Fertes, a 39-year-old health-club lifeguard from Rio, told the Times with a smile before starting his pool deck shift at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium. “I think about that. It’s a one-in-a-million type of event, but we’re prepared.”
While the odds of an actual rescue becoming necessary are remote to say the least, the Rio Olympics may now have its own version of the Jamaican bobsled team. Regardless of their place in Olympic history or future in popular culture, in the meantime they certainly have great seats for the competition.
