Looking back on 2024: an incredible year of swimming

Looking back over 2024, we asked outdoor swimmers to share their highlights. What were yours? Rowan Clarke reflects on an incredible year of swimming.

Nothing’s been the same since those strange lockdown years, but 2024 feels closer than any other year to pre-pandemic form. The frenzied growth in outdoor swimming has settled, events are back in full swing, swim travel is booming, and people are accomplishing incredible swims.

With a stronger-than-ever appreciation for the natural world, 2024 has also been characterised by renewed vigour in advocating for our waterways – the fight to clean up rivers alongside stories about why nature is vital for our existence. Looking back over 2024, we asked outdoor swimmers to share their highlights. What were yours?

From boom to balance

The pandemic closed pools and gyms, forcing people outdoors to exercise. Over the next couple of years, outdoor swimming became the big trend, and it felt like everyone was extolling the virtues of cold water. But that frenzy seems to have settled, and outdoor swimming in 2024 felt calmer, less novel and more intentional.

There was more inclusion, for example. Projects around the UK sought to break down barriers, bringing people to the water who might not otherwise have that opportunity. In June, Open Minds Active won the Award for the Best Nature-Based (Green & Blue) Social Prescribing Project, while the charity Reclaim the Sea (RTS) helped refugees overcome sea trauma by teaching swimming and water-based survival skills.

As outdoor swimming communities became more inclusive, new venues and lidos opened, and more people were trained to be openwater swimming coaches and lifeguards.

“I’ve been so inspired by some of the amazing Volunteer Swim Hosts at Mental Health Swims,” says Founder Rachel Ashe. “It’s also been wonderful to watch participants join a group and experience the benefits, so much so that they then gain the confidence to apply for the Swim Host group and help support their community further.”

This improved infrastructure put more safe, clean, well-managed venues on the map and gave more swimmers opportunities to join supported groups and get coaching – a subject we explored in our August issue.

In 2024, NOWCA supported six venues to open or reopen for swimming. In February, a new Lido Toolkit transformed the landscape for lidos and project leaders working to revive, create, sustain and develop pools for the benefit of their communities.

Better infrastructure also meant more outdoor swimming events. Many of us new to swimming outdoors in lockdown took on our first open water challenge, while others returned to form after a hiatus.

“My 2024 swimming highlight was learning front crawl and putting it into action for my four-mile swim in the River Arun with Aspire,” says our Digital Editor, Abi Whyte (pictured above). “I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to do it because of shoulder issues, but I smashed it!”

“I swam the 10-mile Kingdom Swim and did way better than I ever imagined,” said outdoor swimmer Sarah Dobbin.

A year of swim travel

Events aren’t just about training – they’re about exploring new waters, too. In 2024, we travelled all around the UK to swim, from the Isles of Scilly to the Hebrides.

“Travelling to the Scilly Isles with my best swimming buddies for the Tresco360 Scilly Swim Challenge was my absolute highlight of this year – such a stunningly beautiful place that has been on my bucket list for decades,” says Michelle Walker, from The Rivers Trust. “Swimming here with wonderful friends and glorious weather was such a joyful experience – even the unexpected jellyfish couldn’t spoil it.”

“The Hurly Burly had its first year back after a five-year hiatus,” says Level Water’s CEO and founder, Ian Thwaites. “Billed as a wild, cold and challenging season-ender, it did not disappoint with 20mph headwinds and a foot of chop and white horses. The swim is an upstream 10km on an incoming tide, and the fastest swimmers finish in just over an hour. It’s wild, furious, and every time you look up, you’re sighting into the mountains of Snowdonia. It’s a stunning place to spend a weekend, and the swim is just the start of all the adventures you can have up there.”

Our outdoor swimming accomplishments also took us overseas. Swim travel is growing thanks to our hunger for adventure – a topic we explored in our April issue. This played out over the year, with many of us travelling further to experience swimming in some of the world’s most magical locations.

“My swimming highlight of the year was doing both events in Swim the Arctic Circle in July,” says reader Clare Calder. “We had a truly amazing week in Finland and Sweden, and the journey was the trip of a lifetime.”

Amazing achievements

From achieving our own challenges to cheering on others, 2024 was quite the year for open water swimming. A real highlight was the epic Olympic marathon swim in the River Seine.

“I loved watching the Olympic marathon swim this year. I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Outdoor Swimmer’s Founder, Simon Griffiths. “The fast current in the Seine created an exciting additional dimension to the races. The swimmers not only had to be incredible swimmers, but they also needed a high level of river swimming skills.”

Another highlight was Neil Agius’s (pictured below) incredible world record-breaking 142.3km swim around the Maltese islands in September. Having interviewed Neil in March, we were rooting for him and tracked his progress for a nail-biting 60 hours and 35 minutes.

Andy Donaldson became one of the first swimmers to complete the 220km circumnavigation of Maui in the inaugural Epic Swim Maui in July and completed the fastest circumnavigation of Manhattan in September. And Bárbara Hernández Huerta became the first South American to complete the Oceans Seven.

“My highlight was Iris Ashman and her incredible Lake Constance-Bodensee 60th Birthday 64km record-breaking swim,” says reader Kezia Everson. “Such an inspiration!”

Swimming culture

Books, films, podcasts and television starred more outdoor swimmers in 2024 than ever. From Disney’s imagining of Trudy Ederle’s fantastic story in Young Woman and the Sea to former swimmer Rebecca Aicheng- Ajulu Bushell’s brilliant book These Heavy Black Bones and Jessica Hepburn’s account of swimming the English Channel in Save Me from the Waves, there were so many celebrations of all aspects of swimming for us to immerse ourselves in.

“My highlights were Melanie Barratt (pictured below) becoming the first blind person to swim the English Channel and the world premiere of her film Untethered at Kendal – a fully accessible screening with BSL on screen, audio description, captions and subtitles,” says Jenny Rice, Design Manager at Kendal Mountain Festival. “And seeing Plunge, the beautiful animation about Kathleen Wotton and how swimming in the sea has helped her feel part of a community.”

Culturally, in 2024, we dove deeper into the many facets of outdoor swimming. We read, watched, and listened to how immersing ourselves in water and the natural environment is essential for mental and physical health, community, and the environment.

“I loved the film The Outrun, which came out a few months ago,” says Rachel Ashe. “It reminded me how healing cold water can be when you’re in a difficult place.”

The fabulous, joyful 2024 feature-length documentary, Rave on for the Avon, highlighted one of the year’s most significant conversations – water quality, particularly the state of our rivers.

“Joining the March for Clean Water in London was such an uplifting and empowering event, filled with familiar faces from the swimming and activism world,” says Abi, who wrote about the march for our December issue. “I was stood right beside actor and folk singer Johnny Flynn at one point. Holy crumpets!”

“It was inspiring to meet people who had travelled from all around the country to be there and be counted,” says Simon. “I don’t believe one piece of action will result in change, but when you combine this with the petitions, the letters to MPs, and the local campaigning that so many people are involved in, then we start to see something.”

More sustainable kit

It has been encouraging to see environmental concerns move up outdoor swimming brands’ list of priorities. In our gear issue in May, we wrote about the uncomfortable juxtaposition of being a responsible consumer. We highlighted the mantra ‘buy once, buy well’, and recognised how having the right kit can enable our swimming.

In September, one of our favourite body positive, eco-swimwear brands, Deakin & Blue, announced that it was closing its doors.

“Working with Deakin & Blue has been a huge highlight for me,” says Rachel Ashe. “They have really helped me, and so many others, with creating body positivity and acceptance. They have also supported Mental Health Swims over the last year with their Vitamin Sea Swimsuit and have raised around £4,000 for us. We are so grateful for all of their support and will really miss them.”

More and more brands, from indies to big names, are sewing in sustainability and community support with durability and functionality, and we have been struck by the quality of swimming gear.

“It’s fair to say we have been consistently impressed by Speedo’s long-anticipated wild swimming range, which launched early in 2024,” says our Gear Editor, Jo Tinsley. “Their Therma Robe was a real standout piece for me. There’s some real thought and insight behind this robe’s thermal design. It transitions seamlessly between changing robe and post-swim coat and I’ve been wearing it all year.”

As we saw in our December issue, great gear can empower us to swim better, more safely and in ways we couldn’t before. For example, Melanie Barrat’s incredible swim wouldn’t have been achievable without bone-conducting technology, which allowed her coaches to guide her as she swam. Even on an everyday level, technology like this can impact how you swim and feel in the water.

“For the December issue, I tried out waterproof bone conduction headphones by H2O Audio and SHOKZ,” says Jo. “The feel of the water, along with the immersive music, felt utterly enveloping. I lost track of the time and the length count. It was so relaxing, it really brought home how even busy lane swims can benefit your mental health.”

Four years after lockdowns forced so many of us outdoors, it feels like 2024 was the year we found our rhythm. We trained more – indoors and outdoors – enjoyed more communities and venues, and invested in longer-lasting, better-thought-out gear. We travelled at home and abroad and explored the many nuanced reasons why we love outdoor swimming.

But it wasn’t a one-way street. Grateful for all that swimming outdoors gives us, it was also the year we stepped up our fight to end water pollution. Long may that continue into 2025.