SWIM THE WORLD NEW YORK FIVE MORE… FINANCIAL CENTRE SWIMS GREAT LONDON SWIM


Where: Royal Victoria Dock, London Next event: 26 May 2012


The Great London swim is part of the hugely successful Great Swims series. 5,000 swimmers set off in waves of 300 throughout the day, following a 1 mile course on the Thames in London’s Docklands area, with views over Canary Wharf. Distance: 1 mile See: greatswim.org


REINSCHWIMMEN


Where: Basel, Switzerland Next event: 14 August 2012 Over 1,000 people gather in the Swiss city of Basel each August for a swim down the river Rhine, which aims to raise awareness about access to the river. The atmosphere is relaxed and many clutch bright orange bags as they fl oat gently downstream. Distance: 1.8km See: rheinschwimmen.ch


THE BIG SHOULDERS SWIM


Where: Chicago, USA Next event: October 2012 Chicago’s famous skyline provides the perfect backdrop for this 5km swim in Lake Michigan, which raises money for the local Masters swim team. Its name comes from a phrase by the poet Carl Sandburg, who called Chicago the “City of Big Shoulders”. Distance: 5km See: bigshoulders.org


ATAMI SUN BEACH GRAND PRIX


Where: Tokyo, Japan Next event: 8 July 2012


Japan has a busy schedule of open water races. This swim takes place in Atami Bay, within view of Mount Fuji. Most online information is in Japanese – there's always Google Translate, but there also are some blogs on this event in English. Distance: 0.4km, 0.8km, 3.2km and a 2km relay See: openwater.jp/2012raceplan


THE CLEAN HALF


Where: Hong Kong, China Next event: October 2012 This swim around the coast of Hong Kong is billed as Asia’s only marathon relay swim event. Teams of fi ve swim from Stanley to Deepwater Bay, with a beach party and barbeque awaiting at the fi nish. A handful of solo swimmers also compete. Distance: 14.5km See: thecleanhalf.com


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He adds: “Some people say that it feels like applying to college, and we just say to them, ‘OK, then, don’t do the swim'.” Clearly many have not been deterred, with a base of 15,000 people now holding the necessary qualifi cations, plus the demand for swimming New York’s waterways means that other new swims are starting up. Last year the new Urban Swim organisation held the Rose Pitonof swim, a 17-mile route taken by a pioneering New York swimmer in 1911 from the East River to Coney Island. In 2012 the organisation will also hold two shorter swims, including a 2.2-mile route from Liberty Island to the future site of the Manhat an Freedom Towers, a route designed aſt er Amazon swimmer Martin Strel told them he’d like to swim in the city. There will also be swim clinics for beginners and more advanced swimmers. Up to 200 swimmers are expected for the Liberty to Freedom swim, and Deanne Draeger, race director for Urban Swim, would like to see more in the future. “In the past it has been a pret y niche pursuit, but it’s growing in popularity.” She believes that this year the fi rst ever Ironman event in New York will encourage this trend to continue. It’s certainly a far cry from when Berger began the NYC swims. “There were a few small swims on beaches, but nothing that really allowed people to enjoy New York,” he says. “But we have a great location – swimming through this human-built landscape that is woven into every part of our culture is something pret y special.” He describes the experience of viewing New York’s scenery from the water as “materially diff erent” to how it looks from a boat. Jesse Lansner is similarly enthusiastic: “The best thing about the Brooklyn Bridge swim is the bridge itself. You can see a part of it every time you breathe, and you get to see it from an angle that few other people ever experience. Lansner also enjoys the link that the swim provides to the city's past, when the rivers provided easier transportation than land. “Swimming across the East River reminds us that it's still a connection, and that Manhat an and Brooklyn really aren't that far from each other,” he says. Many swimmers will be familiar with the idea that swimming reconnects us to our environment, but it’s somehow especially pleasing that a city so oſt en at the frontier of progress can retain such an elemental association with its surroundings. ○


THE MORE ICONIC THE LOCATION, AND THE LONGER THE SWIM, THE MORE INTERNATIONAL INTEREST THERE IS


Swimmers in the 2011 Brooklyn Bridge Swim approach the iconic bridge that gives this race its name


Photo © Capri Djatiasmoro


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