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Swimmers Are the Best in Bed, Swimmers Say

For starters, in no other sport are you horizontal.
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Let's face it: Boning is as competitive a sport as any. It requires agility, endurance, flexibility, and finesse. And athletes—in theory—can implement all of those skills in the bedroom; they have an innate understanding of how the human body works. And some believe that swimmers in particular seem to have an edge.  "My girlfriend was a competitive synchronized swimmer for about ten years and I know she's better in the bedroom because of it. She's in tune with her body and aware of both our movements," says Brock, an addictions counselor in Tennessee. "Some women get on top and are all herky jerky, but she is more fluid with the movements."

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The theory's even echoed by some experts. For starters, in no other sport are you horizontal, and there are physiological differences to how your body responds to exercise when you're in that position, says Heather Milton, senior exercise physiologist at NYU Langone's Sports Performance Center. "Some of the key components are your heart rate and how much blood you pump out with each heartbeat," she says. Over time, swimming can improve your cardiac output and aerobic capacity.

The question of how good swimmers are in bed came up, naturally, during a recent Speedo event in which two former Olympic swimmers—Natalie Coughlin and Cullen Jones—led a bunch of journalists through an intense workout class. For one thing, I'd heard the rumors about the Olympic village—last August, it seemed like every news outlet on the planet had run a story about the alleged promiscuity in Rio, with a record 42 condoms allotted per athlete.  But even after we've bonded moved past pleasantries, I can't get much more than nervous laughter and sidelong glances out of Coughlin and Cullen. "I think [rumors] have been inflated over the years [about the] wild and crazy Olympic village," Coughlin, a 12-time Olympic medalist, finally admits. "The village isn't crazy. Everyone is very respectful of the other athletes." Jones is even more tight-lipped: "It's like fight club," he says. "You don't talk about it."

That only makes me want to talk about it more. Start with the most obvious, superficial facts of the sport: Swimmers are toned. They can hold their breath far longer than normal people, who need to come up for air faster. (Make of that what you will.) As Coughlin puts it, they have a keen awareness of their bodies and the freaky shit they can do. (Okay, except she never said "freaky shit").

So how could athletes with that much energy—who slither in and out of the pool in all their spandexed, chiseled glory, wearing next to nothing—not turn their downtime into a den of sexual eruption (or sensual seduction, if you're feeling classy). How is sex not always somewhere on a swimmer's mind?

"I mean, the butterfly is that," Jones, a gold medalist in 2012, concedes. It's a sexy sport. A lot of the motions are similar." Milton says that's part of the advantage they enjoy: "I would say that about any sport that requires a hip thrust. You're translating the same type of motion into your sport as you are in the bedroom."

Compared to athletes overall, swimmers are also known for their innate ability to focus—a heightened state of awareness they're able to channel, Milton says. "They have to focus on themselves and their lane and not get distracted by everything going on around them. Translated into their sex lives, it's the ability to focus on what they're doing and set aside everything else—all the noise of life. I don't see that as being anything other than beneficial."

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