Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's marathon 10 kilometre events require different tactics and showcase several different racing strategies that are more common to competitive cycling, marathon running and water polo than traditional pool swimming. It is one of the few Olympic sports where the athlete's coaches play a critical role during the actual event. The coaches have four opportunities to provide drinks to their athletes as the athletes swim by floating pontoons in the course. If the coach falls in the water, his or her athlete is immediately disqualified. Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's marathon 10 kilometre The women's marathon 10 kilometre event at the
Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon 10 kilometre for obstructing his fellow swimmers and a red card for misconduct. The men's 10 km races at the 2008 Olympics featured a field of twenty-five swimmers: Unlike all of the other swimming events in the pool, the men's and women's marathon 10 kilometre races were held in open water. No preliminary heats were held, with only the single mass-start race being contested. This race is held using freestyle swimming, with a lack of stroke regulations. For most of the event swimmers use the front crawl, but modifications are used situationally, especially when swimmers reach feeding stations. Open water swimming events