When swimmers tackle the 200m butterfly, they must touch each wall with two hands. When swimmers tackle the 1500m freestyle, they must swim 30 laps of a 50m pool. When triathletes tackle the Hawaiian Ironman, they must do so without a wetsuit if the water is warmer than 76.1ºF (24.5ºC).
And so the same concept applies to swimming the English Channel. The English Channel is, as Brittany King said to many media outlets before her attempt, "by no means an easy task. Twenty-two miles in 55ºF (12.7ºC) water without a wetsuit is quite daunting."
King appeared in numerous publications from Shape to Health Fitness Sports Magazine to Fox TV, touting prior to her swim how hard the English Channel is and touting afterwards about her 13 hour 38 minute crossing.
While the media lapped up her exploit and celebrated how the veterinarian was raising money for the Banfield Charitable Trust, she admitted to wearing a wetsuit. As she told Shape Magazine, "It's okay to adjust your goal if you have to. You know, I didn't want to wear a wetsuit when I was doing the channel swim, but I started to get hypothermia as I was swimming. My pilot told me, "You can get out and call it a day, or we can put you in a wetsuit, and you can finish the race." I had to adjust my goal in order to reach it."
What we find surprising is that she had a wetsuit on board her escort boat in the first place, especially one that fit her. This is not something that the usual English Channel aspirant does, no matter how honorable their charity channel crossing is. The English Chanel is the most hallowed waterway in the open water swimming community precisely because it is hard and because not everyone can make it.
To attempt a channel crossing and not finish is not failure. It is a simply an unfinished attempt. Sometimes, an unfinished attempt is due to the currents or tides. Sometimes, it is due to the darkness of night or the distance. Sometimes, it is due to an injury, seasickness or jellyfish. And sometimes, it is due to the cold. There is no shame in calling it a day. But calling for a wetsuit rubs the channel swimming and marathon swimming communities the wrong way, especially when so much publicity is the result.
Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source
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She also wore fins and did not tell these media publications this or on her blog. Read the comments on the shape article, the president of channel swimming and piloting points it out.
ReplyDeleteOnce a King, Always a King
ReplyDeleteThe author of “Fit for a King” is a gifted, incisive writer, clearly a literary force and perhaps the most cogent critical thinker of the 21st century, or any other century, for that matter. It appears that prior to penning this missive, there were many nights “pissing the night away” or taking calls from Hookah, the smoking caterpillar.
Parva leves capiunt animas.
From casual perusal to a deeper scan of the author’s referenced articles, nowhere does it appear that the athlete has claimed anything other than entering the cool waters of the English Channel from the coast of England, and then, stroke after stroke, kick after kick, exiting the cool waters of the English Channel on the French coast. The athlete endured the grueling hardships as a committed fundraiser for a pet charity, and even with multiple opportunities to quit, completed the commitment, and the swim. There is not any apparent demand for certifications, this is no Rosie Ruiz taking a taxicab for 21 miles of the Boston Marathon to ascend the medal stand, or a Lance Armstrong, preening 7 times in the Yellow Jersey, with erstwhile denials of doping (though the author of “Fit For a King” may have a claim of a pandemic over the pond.) No, this appears to simply be an athlete entering the waters off the coast of England, swimming stroke after stroke for 13+ hours, to complete a fund-raising commitment.
Now, perhaps the captain of the pilot boat will come forward and assert that the athlete waterskiied behind the boat, or sat in a small dinghy tethered to the pilot boat (though one might surmise that the only “small dinghy” is that possessed by the author of “Fit for a King”, as the pomposity of his garrulous tome and bombastic vitriol portend him compensating for something.)
Absent a captain’s assertion, it remains highly unlikely that any of the pets who may receive life-saving support from the charity will give a rat’s ass if their salvation came gift-wrapped in a wetsuit.
Consummatum est.
For those who followed the blogs and articles PRIOR to the swim ever taking place we were constantly reminded of the rules of channel swimming and how the swimmer would be following these rules. For those who came along after the swim and saw the 'revised' blogs and articles you would not see this as a problem, especially if not a marathon swimmer. Perhaps had she been up front PRIOR to her swim that she intended to use a wetsuit and fins there would have been less of an uproar. To the best of my knowledge I have never ever heard of an able bodied swimmer using fins during a crossing of the English Channel.
ReplyDeleteAs to your analogy of Rosie Ruiz - would it have been acceptable to you if she ran that marathon while on roller blades? For marathon swimmers the use of a wetsuit and fins is as unreasonable as a person strapping on roller blades and claiming they 'ran' the Boston Marathon.
As to the Lance Armstrong analogy to this day this swimmer has not publicly (that I have seen) acknowledged the use of fins during her swim and according to the President of the CS&PF this is a documented fact.
Marathon swimmers train endless hours and in water temperatures that non-swimmers cannot comprehend. It is heartbreaking when the grueling, long hours of a marathon swim cause hypothermia and the swimmers must end their attempt but, that is the nature and risk of the sport.
As to the charity side of things - kudos to her for raising funds for such a noble cause. I would say that at one point or another every marathon swimmer raises money for a charity. It is the nature of the sport that it lends itself to such a worthwhile endeavor. Finishing the swim has no effect whatsoever on being able to raise funds for your favorite charity as most funds are raised prior to the swim ever taking place (unless you are doing a $ per mile swim fund raising).
There were some incredible swims and heart breaking stories in the English Channel this past summer that were so much more news worthy than this swim. It is sad that the world will not know about them because those swimmers are not publicity seekers.
So basically, she wanted the acclaim and publicity of someone who had swum the English Channel... but in the end, was unwilling to put in the training and preparation necessary to, y'know, actually swim the English Channel.
ReplyDelete