MGMAT SC: question about problem #9, Chapter 7

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Question #9 in the problem set for MGMAT SC Chapter 7 asks if the following sentence needs to be corrected:

When he swam across the lake, he struggled to keep his head above water.

MGMAT states that this sentence is grammatically correct, as swam and struggled are both in the simple past tense. This is correct because the swimming and struggling must have happened at the same time.

My question is, would there be anything grammatically incorrect -- or bad as far as the GMAT is concerned -- with the following:

When he was swimming across the lake, he struggled to keep his head above the water.

Is it possible that "was swimming" would be appropriate here only if the first word in the sentence is "as", and not "when"?

Thanks!
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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