Category Archives: Person of Interest

One of the many things I love about swimming is the relationships formed through common passion for the sport.   I have met people from all over the world, many of which, I am happy to now call friends…all through swimming.  All because we have one very sacred thing in common.  I feel incredibly lucky.

Since September, I have had the pleasure of meeting  an ex-Russion national swimmer.  He started back to swimming less then a year ago after taking 20 years off.  You would never know it from watching him swim.  We swim next to eachother most days – – he working on sprinting and getting in shape for pool meets, I focusing on distance and open water swims. We speak a good deal about technique, workout strategies, the “why” of this set or that.

Yesterday, we got to talking about our early years swimming…he growing up in the USSR, me in the USA.  We talked about work ethic and training in the USSR and the mentality of the time.  As we discussed the equipment we use today, and how we used them in the past, he told me something that I had never heard or would have known had I not been speaking to someone who lived in the Soviet Union.

He told me how, in every school, they had workshops and took classes on how to build…how to make things.  Everyone did it…this was so if they had to build stuff or war broke out, everyone would be able to “pitch in.”  Ok, this made sense to me..I could see that.  However, he then went on to tell me that in his swim school – Side note – he was chosen to go to this school for exceptional swimmers (my word “exceptional” not his) – only two kids got picked a year and then you would go there to swim and, of course, learn.

Their pool was in a basement. An olympic size he told me.  Next to the pool was a room.  It was the swimmers’ workshop (his words not mine).  This is where they made their equipment!  Yes.  They made their own pull buoys, they made their own paddles.  if you wanted equipment you had to make it yourself.  Everyone did this.  He said it was not uncommon for there to be workshops like this in pretty much every discipline.  This is how they lived, this is what they knew.  You worked for everything.

So, as I push off the wall now and, at times, get annoyed when my pull buoy starts to shimmy down my inner thighs during a set (yes it still happens occassionally), I think about the prospect of having to make my own pull buoy and paddles and then pushing the pull buoy up does not seem like such an annoyance.

I love this sport.  I love that it not only feeds my body but it also feeds my mind and reveals secret doors I am always suprised to see pop open.

I’m just going to cut right to the chase on this one.  What inspires other Marathon swimmers to do the next big swim, tackle the next big event?  I will tell you…it is no secret:  when one of our own not only completes a swim but does something so amazing that she leaves you walking around in wonder all day as if you did the swim yourself, it not only inspires, it ignites.

Chloe McCardel made us proud yesterday.  If you are not a marathon swimmer, or even a swimmer, THIS is one of the women you want to follow and read about to really understand what is involved with the sport.

She did the swim right, she made the journey unassisted – pushing through every painful stroke at the end.  Jellyfish stings and salt that disfigured her face, 80 miles…She did it.  David Barra, one of our own was on the boat as he was asked to observe her swim…I think I can speak for the New York crew when I say that this event, her accomplishment, is a proud moment for us all.  I am in awe, I am inspired, I feel like a proud mom and this fuels my fire to push myself to the limits on my next swim.  WAY TO GO CHLOE!!!!!!!!!!!

When I was younger and an older athlete’s name was mentioned, I remember the adults making comments like, “you don’t know him/her! s/he was the first to do…”  Usually, those athletes were either long gone or done with their careers; which is what makes us so lucky now.  Open water swimmers like Lynne Cox and Alison Streeter are not only still around but very much involved in the sport.  These were the women who were the firsts.  Alison has crossed the English Channel 43 times, more than anyone else in the world.  She set the female record for a Channel swim from France to England (8 hours 48 minutes), in 1988. She was the first (and so far only) woman to swim the Channel three ways non-stop in 1990, taking 34h 40 min for the feat.  These are only some of her accomplishments.  I have never met Alison but I have met Lynne Cox and can vouch for her character as a public figure and role model.  How lucky we are to have greatness among us and greatness that is willing to share her stories, get intimate enough to ask you yours and give crucial and thoughtful advice.  Lynne was the youngest (age 15) to cross the English channel twice setting the record for fasting crossing for men or women.  She was the first woman to swim the Cook Strait in New Zealand, the first person to swim across the Strait of Magellan in Chile, the Beagle Channel between Argentina and Chile, Lake Baikal in Russia and around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.  In 1987 Cox crossed the Bering Strait from Alaska to the Soviet Union and in 2002 swam more than a mile in 31-degree Fahrenheit waters off Antarctica (buy her book – swimming to Antarctica).  She has written a book Open water swimming manual – an expert’s survival guide for triathletes and open water swimmers.  This book tells you everything you need to know about open water swimming.  Even if you are not an open water swimmer, the information she gives in the book  is also a guide of open water in general covering topics such as dangerous marine organisms, surf, body surfing, role of the tides…and the list goes on and on.  I encourage everyone to pick up this book…it could really assist you one day if you find yourself in a scary situation in the ocean.  I also encourage you to read more about Lynne Cox and her accomplishments.  Her story will amaze and inspire you and you wonder why you haven’t read about her sooner and happy you now know a person like her exists.

Since I introduced my website this week, I have received such wonderful words of support and encouragement by so many.  I have also received some inspirational stories that I really feel I need to share.  My friend Lauren sent me a link to her friend MATT LONG’s story.  He was an Iron Man competitor and while riding his bike to work in Manhattan during the MTA strikes a few years ago, he was crushed by a bus and wrote a book about his journey to recovery.  http://www.mattslongrun.com/index.html. For those of us, that have a hard time dragging ourselves to the pool or the gym or whatever we need to do to get ourselves moving, Matt’s story will help you appreciate the ease of doing all the small things we take for granted and think are soooo difficult at times.  His story may make you complain less and do more. Sometimes we are so focused on following the path that is before us that when that path makes a sharp turn we can’t stop thinking about that straight path and the what ifs rather than thinking that maybe the new path will lead us to a new and more exciting journey.  Matt proves even the bumpiest of paths can be traveled and conquered.  Please read his story.