An inspiring summer of swimming

Wowed by a summer of amazing swimming, Rowan Clarke meets the creator-completers of some of the most inspiring outdoor swims in the world

Were you inspired by watching the Olympic Marathon swimming last month? Ten captivating kilometres where the swimmers’ speed on the outward leg was more than twice as fast as when they were swimming against the current. Where swimmers had to follow the most current-free spot but also avoid the weeds on the bank. A swim that Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen described in his post-race interview as “probably one of the worst things I’ve ever done”.

While Wiffen might be heading back to the pool, the jeopardy and wildness of swimming outdoors is precisely its appeal for so many of us. Not only because it’s more interesting and challenging, but also because it encourages a kind of creativity seen in very few other sports.

As the Olympians prepared for their 10km in the Seine, other open water swimmers were undertaking phenomenal swims all around the world. Demonstrating the breadth of human capability and the depth of our creativity, we meet the super-human swimmers who dreamt big and swam wild.

Channel dreams

Almost 150 years since Captain Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, that stretch of water between the White Cliffs of Dover and Cap Griz is as iconic as it is inspiring, capturing the imagination of swimmers from all over the world.

Few swimmers express this as well as Hassan Baraka, who became the first Moroccan to swim the English Channel on 13 July. An endurance swimmer with an extraordinary CV of continent-linking, record breaking swims, he explains why La Manche is so inspiring.

“I always dreamed and wanted to conquer the ‘the Everest’ of open water swimming,” says Hassan. “It was a very nice challenge because I found peace with those waters. I am very sensitive concerning the feelings, energy and karma of some water places around the world, and I can definitely put the English Channel in my top five swims in terms of good vibes.”

For Hassan, the challenge of swimming his longest endurance swim to date in cold, salty water was met with the honour of putting his country on the Channel-swimming roll of honour. And while more than 1900 solo swimmers have successfully navigated this stretch of water (5000 fewer than have conquered actual Everest, by the way), Hassan’s experience shows just how unique and personal each Channel victory can be.

On the same day that Hassan completed his swim, 16-year-old American Maya Merhige rounded off her Triple Crown by reaching Cap Griz in 11hrs, 39minutes. For Maya, open water swimming is deeply personal as she swims to raise money for cancer research after losing a 12-year-old family friend to the disease.

Life’s a marathon

Swims like Maya’s reflect the allegorical nature of the sport. As she told NBC news, “Open water swimming is a really challenging sport, and it reminds me every day that regardless of how challenging something might be for me, it’s nothing compared to what cancer patients face. It has really helped me put things into perspective.”

Perhaps because marathon swimming mirrors the way in which people persist, battle and persevere through life, the individuals who take them on have themselves endured some kind of challenge. On 13 August, Gerrard Gosen, for example, attempted to become the first blind person to swim the English Channel. The timing of this attempt was a nod to his life’s work to advance sporting representation.

The three times Paralympian set up Australia’s Paralympic committee in the 1990s with barely any resources. This year, his daughter, Taylor, represented Australia at the Paralympics in Judo. Had Gerrard succeeded in crossing the English Channel (his safety crew stopped the swim because of extreme weather conditions), he would have handed Taylor the Australian flag to take the flag to the athlete’s village in Paris.

“I had a very enormous passion as a young kid to really strive to represent my country,” he explains. “To see the awareness, the appreciation, the recognition of Paralympic athletes right around the world. But more so now, obviously, to see my daughter strive to follow in my footsteps to represent, the green and gold and to fight under the Australian flag.”

Young or old

Thanks to the persistence of people like Gerrard, sport is becoming more egalitarian – we saw that at the Olympics and Paralympics. And, because water is everywhere and swimming is such a great leveller, endurance open water swimming is deeply democratic. In other words, you don’t have to be a certain age, it doesn’t matter where you’re from or if you have a disability – you can still follow your swimming dreams.

This summer, for example, the indomitable Bárbara Hernandez became the first Chilean to complete the Oceans 7, Iris Ashman conquered the 60km Lake Constance crossing at the age of 60, para-athlete Tina Deeken completed the Para V and, at 17 years old, Daniel Smyth became the youngest person to cross the North Channel.

“There’s a lot things special about open water swimming in general,” says Daniel. “I think in terms of swimming itself, it’s like one of the purest forms of sport I can think of. It’s just yourself, goggles, hat and togs against the sea or the lake. You’re not constrained.”

It’s this lack of constraint that is so freeing. Unlike other sports where there are rules, boundaries and common goals, open water endurance swimming allows you create your own. You don’t have to swim fastest or follow a specific route. In Daniel’s words, “you’re aiming for a point and you swim until you get to that point.”

For example, Helen Betley circumnavigated the island of Jersey in July. A 36-mile swim completed by fewer than 200 people, Helen chose to swim it butterfly to raise money to refurbish her local pool.

Meanwhile, Mayra Santos completed an unprecedented swim in the Madeira islands, crossing from Santa Cruz to Deserta Grande Island and back again. “I knew the return would not be easy, but I never imagined how challenging it would be,” she wrote on an Instagram post. “Completely exhausted but determined, I knew I had no other option but to keep going.”

Creating communities

It’s impossible to talk about endurance swimming without mentioning community. Perhaps it’s the personal stories or the fact that endurance swimming is so levelling, but the teams that support and enable these incredible swims are part of what makes it so special.

Imbedded in outdoor swimming, communities grow around endurance swims. From the people who inspire the swimmers themselves lending local knowledge and experience to the support crews and cheerleaders, endurance swims cultivate a sense of togetherness in what is actually a solo sport.

A great example is Mark Scott, a naval officer who set out in April to swim to or from as many RNLI stations as he can in 200 days to commemorate 200 years of the RNLI. Swimming unsupported with a selfmade float containing his kit in tow, he has a marine band radio for safety.

“The main point to this is for us to raise awareness of the fantastic work done by the volunteers who work for the RNLI,” says his proud brother Carl, who supports him throughout. “I am doing a few swims with Mark, but this is about him and his incredible strength to see this through.”

And yet, Mark has the backing of both the RNLI and coastguards, with whom he checks in as he swims. On the flip side, Jim ‘The Shark’ Dreyer who attempted a solo 128km swim across Lake Michigan in August had to abandon his swim after losing the batteries to his GPS and swimming for hours in the wrong direction.

Having a support crew really is everything for endurance swimmers. That’s not just to help with safety and navigation, but also to cheer them along and keep them motivated.

“Everyone in the support boats was shouting for me. My coach was crying,” wrote Mayra. “As I approached the Santa Cruz pier, the sight of so many people waiting for me was indescribable. I stood up after 20h:53m:36s. The applause was spine-chilling and, at that moment, we wrote history.”

“The community around open water swimming is brilliant,” says Daniel. “It really brings people together. I just think there’s nothing in the world like it because you can have people who dunk for five minutes and channel swimmers, and that’s all part of the same community and everybody gets along.”

In this sense, perhaps we don’t need to wait another four years for Olympic inspiration because there is inspiration within our own communities. Seemingly ordinary people of all backgrounds, ages, genders, sizes and shapes who have a spark of an idea that grows into a dream that becomes an ambition.

And while these swimmers push the boundaries of human strength and stamina, they also show us that endurance swimming is sport that allows creativity. It’s a sport in which letting your imagination swim wild pays off.