I recently rejoined the Y in my town, and after swimming laps a few times (and noticing a couple of ladies wearing swimsuits with very little rear coverage), I decided to try an experiment in asking forgiveness rather than permission.
One sunny afternoon in mid-March, I slipped on a thong suit instead of my usual bikini and headed to the pool. My presentation was discrete so as not to draw any unnecessary attention to myself. I walked out onto the pool deck with my swim equipment bag, wearing my thong under a pair of black shorts. I put all my equipment at the end of my lane and then set my bag and flip flops over on a chair, dropped my shorts, and casually walked back to my lane. I sat down on the edge of the pool to put on my cap and goggles and then got into the water. So far, so good. If anybody noticed anything, nobody said anything. Even though there were a couple of other people in the lanes next to me and a lifeguard on duty, I swam my laps undisturbed. Once I finished, I got out of the pool, walked over to grab my towel, wrapped it around my waist, and then gathered my equipment before heading back into the locker room.
I was stunned by my success! The next time I swam, I wore a bikini and still half-expected someone to say something to me about having worn a thong the previous time, but nothing came up.
The following time, I tried thonging again, and again no one said anything or seemed to care. To date, I’ve swam laps in a thong seven times at two different Ys in my region (which is in a state in the southeastern US).
!
.