Posted on 05/17/2022 11:13:56 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A Chinese university’s move to shift a swimming test online sparks a wave of mockery on social media. South China Morning Post
Shanghai University has become the subject of mockery after it moved a practical swimming examination "online".
The dean's office at Shanghai University announced on May 15 that undergraduates finishing their bachelor's degrees due to take a 50-metre swimming test could participate online from home.
In China, students at some of the most prestigious universities must learn to swim before they graduate because swimming is considered a survival skill and improves physical fitness.
According to the university website, the special arrangement for the final swim test was in response to the ongoing wave of Covid-19 in Shanghai.
To finish the online swimming test students had to log in to the campus network and answer an online questionnaire.
"The classes and facilities including the swimming pool at the university are suspended under the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown. To ensure the students can graduate, we decided to conduct the swimming test online," an unnamed staff member from the dean's office told the Chinese news outlet Jimu.
The university's initiative has attracted widespread criticism and triggered a wave of mockery in China. At the time of writing, 65,000 users on Weibo had interacted with the post.
One person asked: "Is it a reality version of surfing the internet?"
Another also asked: "Could it be swimming in the bathtub at home?"
"Hahaha, go let the swimming sport completely and detach from the water. What a brilliant idea!" another said.
Many online even imitated the students who were due to participate in the online test. One TikTok user, who equipped himself with swimming goggles and a cap, filmed himself jumping from his nightstand onto his bed. Then he started stretching himself and practising swimming moves on his bed.
China's financial hub Shanghai, with 25 million people has been under a massive lockdown since April 1. On Monday (May 16) the city reported 69 new Covid-19 infections and 869 asymptomatic cases.
Dr. Sheldon Cooper apparently learned to swim online.
And the Bee loses another one....
Well, if an American Four Star General can use a video game and say it is war reporter footage, I guess taking a swim test online is OK too.
That’s the only way I would take a swim test.
Is there an Oculus Quest Virtual Reality swimming game?
I know there is bike riding and other fitness apps.
If only I could have done this as a freshman at college. Drownproofing was a required course back in the day.
I remember in the Army there was talk of mail order Ranger courses. Wonder if Airborne could be done online?
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I tried it and beat Michael Phelps by 2 full seconds on the 800 fly!
Air-mail.
My daughter hated P.E. swimming classes in High School.
She eventually (and happily) got out of it by having a scheduling conflict with school orchestra session.
So to get out of the course - the P.E. teacher made her write a research report about swimming.
I leceve “A” in schrimming crass, who raughing now?!
Raffing out Roud
I think maybe it's dancing to "Rock Lobster" on a ZOOM meeting.
Kinda like this guy:
Sorry, not sure what the SF 180 is.
My freshman year (over 50 years ago) we swam naked in swim class.
My brother, a sophomore, told me a story about a day that was deemed co-ed swimming day. Of course, everyone wore swimming trunks, except for one boy, who didn’t get the memo. He left the locker room and walked into the pool area naked as the day he was born. To make matters worse, he was blind as a bat without his glasses. It took a few long seconds of “THERE ARE GIRLS IN THE POOL” from the boys before he ran for cover.
He is a professor at Yale.
I remember being able to swim was a requirement for entering college freshmen (many decades ago).
They made us swim a lap to prove we could do it.
It was a bizarre requirement—but I always liked swimming so it was no big deal for me.
The article is hilarious for sure.
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