Apple recommends keeping AirPods out of the water. But an Argentine swimmer evidently forgot she had them in her ears when she proceeded to break her own record during an international race in France.
Despite finishing second in the 800-meter freestyle, Delfina Pignatiello broke her own national record with a time of 8:24.33. Her AirPods were in her ears tucked under her swim cap the whole way.
Pignatiello later joked on Twitter that there wasn’t any music playing, according to SwimSwam, a news site for water sports.
When she hit the wall, just after Hungarian Ajna Kesely during the Canet stop of the Mare Nostrum tour, she pulled one of her AirPods out and showed it to someone on deck.
Pignatiello, who has already qualified for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, did not say whether her AirPods still work.
AirPods don’t have an IP rating, which indicates a device’s level of resistance to dust and water. While Apple makes clear AirPods should stay out of the water, some pairs have been known to work after submersion in water.
Competitive swimmers listen to music to get psyched up for races and often pull out their headphones right before stepping up onto the starting platform in their lane. Since AirPods are cordless, its surprising this doesn’t happen more in competitive swimming.
