New to the Olympics: marathon swimming, to be held at the Rowing-Canoeing Park in Beijing starting tomorrow, August 20th. The Park is a lake-size sheet of water where the winds can kick up some nasty 2-3-foot whitecaps. The 10K swim for women is August 20, and the men’s swim on August 21. Swimmers will make several rounds of the park for the distance. The U.S.A.’s Chloe Sutton is a heavy favorite to win, according to one sport swim site I found.
LGBT interest here: Our own Diana Nyad was one of the great pioneers of this daunting sport, so she’s partly responsible for the fact that it has finally been granted Olympic status.
Retired from swimming today, Diana occupies herself with motivational speaking and sports consulting for the media.
Marathon swimming has been around since the 19th century. But for a long time it existed in a twilight zone, with people doing solo feats like swimming the English Channel or the Irish Sea. Diana once attempted a swim from Cuba to Florida. Many people felt that these swims were stunts, attempted by people who were crazy or looking for publicity (which is how marathon running on land used to be viewed).But now marathon swimming is coming of age and getting respect as a real competitive racing sport, and makes its Olympic debut. As a former landlubbing marathoner, I have a super-mega-massive respect for anybody who races this way in the water, battling waves, wind, hypothermia, etc. I wrote a big backgrounder in my profile of Diana Nyad in The Lavender Locker Room.
Glimpses of the two races may or may not be broadcast on TV, but streaming video or rewinds are likely to be found on the NBC website.
By Patricia Nell Warren
5 responses so far ↓
1 Marc in Chicago // Aug 18, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I’m excited to watch this event. I just wish they wouldn’t call it a “marathon.” That title should be reserved for a distance of 26.2 miles. “Long Distance Swimming” would be a fine substitute.
2 Patricia Nell Warren // Aug 18, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I agree with you 100 percent. But that’s how it’s listed on the NBC Olympic program, under “swimming.” And the sport is also referred to that way generically by many people. Hopefully the correction will finally get made.
3 Ted Erikson // Aug 18, 2008 at 7:44 pm
It was agreed by Coaches in the late 1960’s that 10 miles would be a comparable “marathon” swim because of the relative times involved for completion. So 10 K isn’t even a marathon. What would one call my 60-mile swim across Lake Michigan in 1963 be called?
4 Patricia Nell Warren // Aug 18, 2008 at 8:42 pm
In landlubber distance events, anything over 26.2 miles is called an ultramarathon — or just ultrarunning or even ultra. Usually these are 50 and 100 mile runs, or 50 and 100K. By that standard, your 60-mile swim could be called an ultra swim. The word “ultra” has a neat ring to it. Belated congrats on your swim! I remember reading about it when I was researching my piece for “Lavender Locker Room.”
5 Steven Munatones // Nov 3, 2008 at 8:03 am
It was decided to call the 10 kilometer swim at the Olympics the “Olympic 10K Marathon Swim” because the time for a world-class swimmer to finish is a bit over 1 hour and 50 minutes for me and just under 2 hours for women which is comparable (as Ted suggested) to a marathon run. For the ease of explaining the concept of a long-distance swim to the general public, this name was decided upon. The definition is now standard - but not exclusively so - among several aquatic governing bodies. That being said, some traditionalists in the sport want to keep the definition of marathon swimming to 25 kilometers and some want to keep it at the distance of the English Channel (21 miles). Apparently, it took several centuries for the running world to define the exact distance of a marathon run, so I assume it will take a similar amount of time for everyone in the aquatic world to come to a mutually acceptable agreement on the definition of a marathon swim. There is a discussion on this point at http://www.10Kswimmer.com.
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