Open Water Swimming

Long before they built swimming pools for the purpose, humans swam in open water spaces - rivers, ponds, lakes, dams and oceans - as well as quarries, ocean rock pools, and even underground in caves. They swam for many reasons - foraging for food, travelling, recreation, etc. 

Open Water swimming can perhaps be divided into competitive swimming race events and long-distance events. Races were held over various distances - from one mile to crossing the English Channel under racing conditions. Long-distance (also known as marathon) swimming was less organised (initially) and often involved one intrepid person setting off to cross a body of water solo. The reasons for undertaking such adventures varied - but often involved a bet. The most famous example of this behaviour is the crossing of the Hellespont by poet Lord Byron in 1810. 

He swam around five kilometres across the Hellespont in a mere one hour and ten minutes. : “I plume myself on this achievement more than I could possibly do on any kind of glory, political, poetical or rhetorical,” he said afterwards.

Victorian and Edwardian England was a class-based society. Organised swimming reflected the class divisions present within English society and demonstrated the extent to which the rising middle classes maintained their separation from the working classes.

The River Thames has been a favourite bathing spot for centuries. The Victorian era saw the birth of organised river racing and soon official pools, islands, pontoons and lidos were created all along the river. People swam at official bathing pools and islands at Oxford, Reading and Henley, dived off pontoons at Kingston, played at temporary lidos in Richmond and by the 1930s Thames beaches had become family seaside resorts.

In Victorian England, open water swimming races and gambling were deeply intertwined.

The long-distance amateur championship of Great Britain attracted competitors from all over the world, while thousands gathered on wharves and barges to watch teenage champions like Agnes Beckwith and Emily Parker.

Legendary swimmers like Annette Kellerman, who came to swimming as a cure for rickets and went on to swim some of the great rivers of Europe, and Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to successfully swim the Channel unaided, who used the Thames as his training ground.

The British brought the idea of open water swimming to the Cape Colony during the 19th century. In 1909 Henry Charteris Hooper completed the first official crossing from Robben Island to Cape Town. The next swimmer to complete the crossing was Peggy Duncan in 1926, when the Cape Argus financed a race from the island, and Peggy was the only swimmer to finish!

Today there is a vibrant long-distance swimming culture in South Africa. There are numerous recognised marathon swims in and around the Cape Peninsula, including crossings from Robben Island and False Bay. In the Western  Cape, such swims are usually organised by the Cape Long Distance Swimming Association.

Elsewhere in the country, the one-mile race format is most popular.

Recently, extreme cold open water swimming has become popular, in part because of people like Lewis Pugh and Ram Barkai. 

Open Water Africa is an organisation based in Cape Town that organises open water swims in locations including St Helena Island in the Atlantic Ocean, Lake Malawi, Zanzibar and Morocco.

The River Thames has been a favourite bathing spot for centuries. The Victorian era saw the birth of organised river racing and soon official pools, islands, pontoons and lidos were created all along the river. People swam at official bathing pools and islands at Oxford, Reading and Henley, dived off pontoons at Kingston, played at temporary lidos in Richmond and by the 1930s Thames beaches had become family seaside resorts.

The long distance amateur championship of Great Britain attracted competitors from all over the world, while thousands gathered on wharves and barges to watch teenage champions like Agnes Beckwith and Emily Parker.

The book covers the stories of legendary swimmers like Annette Kellerman, who came to swimming as a cure for rickets and went on to swim some of the great rivers of Europe, and Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to successfully swim the Channel unaided, who used the Thames as his training ground.

In 1957 the Thames river was declared biologically dead, and organised racing was largely over, and by the 1970s swimming in the Thames was seen as unusual and dangerous. But in the past decade the huge resurgence in ‘wild swimming’, along with the formation of new open water clubs, means over 10,000 people now take part in organised Thames swimming events every year.
Caitlin’s book includes interviews with every major long distance Thames swimmer since the 1980s, with Channel champions, internationally known athletes, charity fundraisers and TV celebrities.