Adaptive swimmer: Sophie Etheridge

Hope is such a small word, but it has huge potential and infinite possibilities, says adaptive swimmer Sophie Etheridge as she prepares to swim the English Channel.  

In February, I attended the Dover Channel Swimming Conference. As I am swimming the English Channel Solo in August, I figured it would be good to arm myself with as much knowledge as possible and I thought it would be great to meet other people that are planning and training to do the same thing. It is all very well having swim buddies that swim once a week and enjoy dipping in the river but, it is VERY different to be regularly swimming 5km upwards and to be in training to swim across the world’s busiest shipping lane with nothing more than a small boat for protection against tankers!

It was a fabulous conference and I have written blogs about it on my website (sophie-adaptive-athlete.com) but the main reason I am telling you this is because one of the first questions we were asked at the conference was, “What do you hope to achieve by swimming the English Channel?”

At first, I thought the answer was obvious; I want to swim from England to France and I couldn’t think of anything else to write. However, after discussing it with other swimmers and my sister who is one of my support crew, I realised there is so much more that I hope to achieve by completing this Channel swim and in a way, being able to say that I have swum from England to France solo is just a perk of what I am hoping to achieve!

What I hope to achieve

• I hope to raise awareness of open water swimmers with disabilities.
• I hope to improve accessibility to open water swimming.
• I hope to create a CPD qualification for open water coaches to teach them about how to help those with disabilities into open water swimming.
• I hope to inspire others with disabilities.
• I hope I will show people what those with disabilities can achieve when they have the right support in place.
• I hope to be the first person with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome to swim the English Channel solo.
• I hope to create a Community Interest Company to help those with disabilities into open water swimming.

Most people reading will have chosen their goals for this season. Maybe you hope to complete your first marathon swim, or you hope to knock five seconds off your personal best? Maybe it is something as simple as you hope to swim in open water once a week, every week through the spring and summer months. Whatever it is that you are hoping to achieve this season I suggest you sit down and think about why you hope to achieve that goal? 

• What is it that you hope to get from completing that challenge? 
• Is there a deeper reason within you 
• that you hope to achieve what you are aiming for? 

At the conference I discovered that if you can figure out why you hope to achieve your goal, write it down, then when you’re struggling in training or with completing your challenge you can remind yourself why, giving you a motivational push to complete what you want to!