Academic

Waterboarding and swimmers

By Tung Yin

While watching an earlier episode of "24" where traitorous CTU analyst Dana Walsh gets waterboarded by some private military contractors working for the ex-President, it occurred to me that Walsh is played by actress Katee Sackhoff, who apparently was quite a serious swimmer through high school.  I got to wondering, is there any evidence that accomplished swimmers can endure waterboarding longer than non-swimmers?

As I understand it, waterboarding activates certain physiological reflexes to simulate the sensation of drowning (or, maybe, to induce partial drowning).  Do swimmers have better control over those reflexes? 

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on May 12, 2010 (boomark / email).