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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Looking At The History Of Swimming Around Manhattan

NYC Swim will host swimmers from around the world for its annual Manhattan Island Marathon Swim on June 18th.

The archives of the NYC Swim are a wonderful resource. From the first female swimmer around the island in 1921, Amelia 'Millie' Gade, to the generations who followed, its archives are filled with fascinating facts, times, people and conditions of the swim.

Copyright © 2011 by Open Water Source

2 comments:

Mike G.June 9, 2011 11:52 AM
Did you post anything about the Great Hudson race, NYCSWIM's kickoff event this year? It was a blast with over 360 swimmers competing in it.
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AnonymousJune 9, 2011 4:28 PM
Hi Everyone,
As head of NYC Swim, the organizer of the Manhattan Island Marathon for the last 17 years, and in the In the interest of historical accuracy, we wanted to correct the record about swims around Manhattan, as some misinformation continues to be circulated.
Amelia 'Millie' Gade's swim around the island was not a first. Rather, the first documented woman to accomplish the feat was Ida Elinosky in 11 hours, 35 minutes (1916). There is some dispute about this attempt but it is the first documented attempt by a woman and no one can say with absolute certainty that she did not do it.
Just as there are theories about who shot JFK and even President Lincoln – record keeping and standards from that era of open water swimming were uneven and unreliable and was filled with great claims and colorful personalities. As more and more information is digitized for that bygone time, I am sure we will continue to refresh the narrative of the firsts and attempts. But until we have a time machine, we may never know who should be rewarded in the record books as the first.
What we know for certainty is the single circle navigation record, starting at East 96th, is held by a woman Shelley Taylor-Smith of Australia of 5:45:25 in 1995. That is the fastest time around Manhattan from any starting location and in any direction.
So my question to the public: Did Ben Lecomte really swim across the Atlantic or not? If you believe he did, then Ida is the first. If not, then Amelia 'Millie' Gade may be the first… only until more articles are digitized.
-Morty
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