Open Water Swimmers Are Not Limited to Eight Lanes In the Pool, But …

By Ned Denison of IMSHOF and ISHOF (retired)

One might think that a big wide-open lake or ocean could accommodate thousands of swimmers and, therefore, entry into a race or arranging a solo swim would be easy. The explosion of interest in open water swimming has resulted in the same kind of entry issues you read about in the New York (running) Marathon and Ironman (triathlon) in Hawaii. Excessive demand imposes real constraints on swimmer numbers.

Let’s take the example of a solo swim across the English Channel – historically considered to be the pinnacle of marathon swimming. As the crow flies, it is 33 km between the typical starting point near Dover, England and the swimmer’s freedom to land along a lengthy stretch of the coastline in France. A swimmer now needs to book a boat/pilot two or three years in advance to secure a desirable tide and swim preference (which of the swimmers on the same tide goes first, second, etc.).

Read the full article @ SwimmingWorldMagazine