02/07/2021
Channel Swimmers are LUNATICS! WHY!?!? Read why; 🤯
More people have climbed Mt Everest than swam across the English Channel with a failure rate of more than 80%. It’s a whopper 42Km crossing in straight line, but with tidal flow it’s really MUCH more. And let’s face it, only the real mad ones take on the challenge!
I’ve been lucky enough to coach for her channel crossing attempt which took place yesterday. The vast amount of training, hard work and discipline she poured into preparation was nothing short of incredible. Covid, pool closures and new business ventures were NO obstacle for this lady, she trained and prepared with rigour.
We left Dover yesterday at 4am, expecting to be in France 18 hours later. I’ve never seen Sarah swim with such pace and form, she was on fire. 6hr’s in, we expected Sarah would complete the swim in approx 14 hours much faster than expected. However, swimming so close to the boat in bouncy conditions meant she swallowed gallons of salt water and began to feel extremely unwell.
I’ll spare all of the gory details, but despite Sarahs best efforts and a lot of persuading it became necessary to abort the crossing. After cruising into French water (well over half way) and swimming over 25KM it was devastating to see the attempt come to an end. It was a tough blow for something outside of our control to bring Sarah’s crossing to an end.
Putting a lot of emphasis the last couple of weeks on the coaching side of Cahill Aquatics (which is why there has been a lack of emphasis on safety), and I’m lucky to be working with a couple of channel swimmers already. We all learned a huge amount during this channel crossing attempt, I’m already thinking about what we can improve for Sarah’s next attempt, and how I can maximise the likelihood of success for CA athletes.
