Wedding Bells In The Marathon Swimming Circuit

There will be two husband-and-wife pairs on the professional marathon swimming circuit come December 26th. Besides Christian and Nadine Reichert of Germany, Damian Blaum of Argentina is getting married to Esther Nunez Morera of Spain.

What is remarkable is that Damian Blaum and Esther both placed second overall in the notoriously difficult FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix. Besides getting ready for their wedding this year, they had to negotiate over 333K (207 miles) while swimming in 9 marathon swims in 7 countries.

Congratulations to the young pair (shown in Dubai).

Copyright © 2010 by Open Water Source

The Water Always Wins - Starting From Ground Zero

Marcellus Wiley went from not being able to swim a lap of the pool to doing ocean swims within two months.

"The water will always win," says the former NFL football star and current ESPN analyst. "Everyone has their hurdles in life and this [open water swimming] is just another hurdle. You can overcome it. You can conquer it, but you just have to get involved."

Watch his progress here.

Video produced by Mike Gustafson Productions.

Copyright © 2010 by Open Water Source

Cool Old-School Goggles For Open Water Swimmers

Keo Nakama, an inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, was a multi-sport star and one of the greatest swimmers of his era.

And, boy, did he use some classic goggles. Too bad manufacturers don't make those anymore. Who cares about fit, when you look cool?

Marilyn Bell of Canada (shown on left) and Florence Chadwick (shown on right) also seemed to wear similar goggles on their marathon swims (in Lake Ontario in Canada and the Catalina Channel, respectively).

As we reminisce about old-school googles, we should not forget these important dates in 2011:

• January 16th: 84th anniversary of George Young’s swim across the Catalina Channel
• May 4th: 83rd anniversary of Mercedes Gleitze’s swim across the Strait of Gibraltar
• July 19th: Qualification Swim for the 2012 London Olympics 10K Marathon Swim
• July 27th: 64th anniversary of Tom Blower’s swim across the North (Irish) Channel
• August 6th: 85th anniversary of Gertrude Ederle’s swim across the English Channel
• August 9th: One year until the Women’s Olympic 10K Marathon Swim
• August 10th: One year until the Men’s Olympic 10K Marathon Swim
• August 24th: 136th anniversary of Captain Matthew Webb’s swim across the English Channel and the 34th anniversary of Lynne Cox’s Bering Strait swim from Alaska to Russia
• September 29th: 50th anniversary of Keo Nakama’s swim across the Molokai Channel
• November 20th: 49th anniversary of Barry Devonport’s swim across the Cook Strait in New Zealand

Copyright © 2010 by Open Water Source

Britta Kamrau - Update From Germany

Britta Kamrau, a world champion and inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, will appear on Open Water Wednesday to reflect back on her remarkable career and her retirement that was announced last week.

She'll also inform the Open Water Wednesday audience of the next stages of her land-based career - working at a law firm, taking state examinations for her legal career and remaining on the FINA Athletes Commission where "I hope to help achieve further goals for and in open water swimming."

Copyright © 2010 by Open Water Source

FINA Pro Marathon Swimming Changes Announced

FINA announced some major changes to its 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup 2011 calendar in order to allow its Task Force to complete its investigation of the causes and circumstances of the tragic loss of Fran Crippen and to allow the the FINA Bureau and Technical Open Water Swimming Committee to consider its findings.

As a result, the fast-approaching FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup series was rescheduled.

The first event of the series is now scheduled to take place in April 2011 instead of the traditional start in January.

There were also slight changes announced in the longer FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix circuit - where the races are longer than 10K. The first race of the Grand Prix season is in Viedma, Argentina on February 5th, but the distance will be changed to 12K where each swimmer will be provided with an individual escort boat.

The revised FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup series is as follows:

April 17th - Santos, Brazil (10K)
April 30th - Cancun, Mexico (10K)
June 18th - Setubal, Portugal (10K)
July 24th - Lac St-Jean, Canada (10K)
September 25th - Shantou, China (10K)
October 2nd - Hong Kong (10K)
To be decided - United Arab Emirates (10K)

The announced FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix series is as follows:

January 23rd - Rosario, Argentina (15K)
January 30th - Santa Fe-Coronda, Argentina (57K)
February 5th - Viedma, Argentina (12K)
February 13th - Hernandarias-Parana, Argentina (88K)
April 23rd - Sumidero Canyon, Mexico (15K)
June 19th - Capri-Napoli, Italy (36K)
July 30th - Lac St-Jean, Canada (32K)
August 6th - Lac Memphremagog, Canada (34K)
August 7th - Sabac, Serbia (19K)
August 14th - Ohrid Lake, Macedonia (30K)
To be decided - United Arab Emirates (15K)

Copyright © 2010 by Open Water Source

Kids Getting An Early Start With The Open Water Stars

Young kids, adults and professional open water swimmers took to The Great Brisbane Swim under rough conditions...

...with smiles all around. Brisbane was the first stop on the inaugural Great Australian Swim Series tour where Trent Grimsey and Melissa Gorman not surprisingly took the top honors at Sutton's Beach Redcliffe.

It was a great mixture with some of the world's greatest open water swimmers, young nippers and adults of all ages and abilities including some of Australia's greatest pool swimming stars.

Olympian Melissa Gorman took it out fast and finished third overall behind the top two men.

"When we turned the buoy to turn back along the beach, it was difficult battling the current and the wind. It was hard to see where you were going but that's the way things go sometimes with ocean swims."

Trent showed he is back on track after recovering from illness.

Similar to Melissa, he executed his race plan by taking the lead from start to finish to win in 29 minutes in very tough conditions whipped up by a strong easterly wind. "I like mixing up my strategies so my competitors don't always know what I am going to do," explained Trent on an Open Water Wednesday interview. "A few of the boys did a 10K swim yesterday, so I thought they might be a bit tired. I really wanted to go out hard early and build a lead and put the pressure on."

But the day wasn't all about the elite swimmers and the competitive drive to win. 368 swimmers the plunge, many for the first time.

With stars like Olympic legends Jon Konrads (at the start) and Susie O'Neill (at the finish), race director Brendan Capell summed up the event, "Ocean swimming is about accepting the challenge of the elements. The swim was a fairly big challenge. To see the determination and camaraderie between the competitors is what open water swimming is all about. To see first timers in the anything-goes-section swim was great."

"We also saw some great concepts in both the elite and non-elite dash-for-cash races which showcased ocean swimming's speed to the first buoy and back and up the beach to claim the envelope with the cash in it.

Trent and up-and-coming sensation Danielle DeFrancesco were too quick for the rest of the field."

Melissa commented on the kids, "The little kids that had a go in the 300-meter swim this morning were fantastic.

We were out there swimming with them and to see the effort they put in and the enjoyment on their faces at the finish line was just great. That's what these types of swims are all about and I can't wait for the next ones - the 2.5K Bodyscience Great Australian Swim Series from Kirra Beach to Coolangatta on January 15th and the series final which will take place at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney Harbour on Australia Day on January 26th."

Copyright © 2010 by Open Water Source