Well, I guess I am one of those "random older people." We had enforced showering in middle school and HS, with individual showers, at least here in MA. Same thing in Miami when I moved there. The teacher stood outside the shower area and checked us off and we all tried to lie, by saying we had our period. Somehow, that excused you from a shower

. I rarely sweated in gym, since I was so uncoordinated. But, after I flunked the President's Physical Fitness test (yes, I did), I got put in what was euphemistically called "Flab Lab." It was there that I discovered I was good at endurance things (we had to jog around the gym/locker room for 20 minutes to pass the test to get out of this class). I think it was the first time I actually sweat, and I was happy to shower.
My kids had to change for gym, but no showers.
And the things we did in Flab Lab had nothing to do with the stupid skills on the President's test, like shooting a basketball.