HAVE A GO YOURSELF A good starting point for information is
channelswimming.net. Contact the CSA at
channelswimmingassociation.com or see our need-to-know guide on page 24.
IT'S OFTEN REFERRED TO AS 'THE EVEREST OF SWIMMING'
swimmers’ successes and crossing times. Some of the most dubious claims involved equipment, one such example being that of American Paul Boyton, who brought his patented “life-saving suit” with in-built fl oats to Dover and who crossed the Channel three months before Webb. To clarify what constituted a Channel swim, the Channel Swimming Rules were laid down and these have become adopted as standard rules in a signifi cant number of events around the world. The CSA was dissolved in 1999 and was succeeded by two separate organisations: The CSA (Ltd) and the
Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation (CS&PF), both of whom still observe and authenticate cross-Channel swims. The 1950s saw the fi rst cross-Channel
as the Channel has been crossed. In 2004, there were just 40 crossings of the channel compared to 336 Everest climbs. Alison Streeter – widely known as the Queen of the Channel – has the most crossings to her name: with a whopping 43. Petar Stoychev set the fastest time, completing in just six hours 57 minutes, while – at 70 years and four months – Roger Allsopp was the oldest swimmer when he made it to France in August this year. Until the authorities banned Channel swims from departing from France, it was considered easier to swim from France to England, as Cap Gris Nez extends some two miles out from the French coast, so it’s harder to navigate to than the relatively fl at Kent coast.
races: the Daily Mail and Butlins both off ered signifi cant prize money to tempt international swimmers over to Kent to compete. But race days and times were fi xed, so the swimmers had to contend with what the weather was like on that chosen day – a far cry from today’s swims where waiting for the ideal weather window is an accepted part of the experience.
Gertrude Ederle: the fi rst woman across
More than 1,200 individuals have swum the English Channel now, completing just over 1,650 crossings. The 21-mile swim is oſt en referred to as the “Everest of Swimming”, but the great mountain has been surmounted 5,101 times, more than four times as oſt en
Either way it’s a great achievement. The
inscription on a monument in Captain Webb’s home town of Dawley, Shropshire, reads: “Nothing great is easy.” Anyone who has swum the Channel would doubtless agree. ○
Simon Murie is the founder of SwimTrek (swimtrek. com), the leading provider of open water swimming and coaching camps in the UK and overseas. He is a qualifi ed swim coach and an experienced swimmer with a solo crossing of the English Channel and other big swims to his name. He is passionate about introducing people to the joys of open water swimming and to fi nding new swims.
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