Long Distance Swimming - Though very popular, distance swimming usually takes a back seat to the more exiting and shorter distance events such as are a part of the Olympics. But when one thinks of long distance swimming, thoughts usually turn to the English Channel. There are bodies of water having greater distances than the Channel of course, in fact the Atlantic Ocean has been conquered, by a swimmer accompanied by two men in a row boat. Crossing the Atlantic in a rowboat is quite a feat in itself. Swimming the Channel though is difficult enough. It is not the distance, which is relatively short for a long distance swimmer, but rather is the cold water and currents which the swimmer has to combat. Most who try the Channel don't succeed, and some of those who have, went the full distance only after a number of tries. While men were first to successfully make the crossing, a woman was successful in 1926. The first American woman to successfully swim the Channel was Florence Chadwick. She accomplished the feat in 1950, and a year later swam the Channel in both directions.
A swim probably every bit as difficult as the English Channel is the Strait of Juan de Fuca, between Washington State and Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The usual route here an 18 mile swim between Port Angeles, Washington, and Victoria, on Vancouver Island. What makes this swim particularly difficult is very cold water and occasional patches of very rough sea. Bert Thomas, a native of Colorado, became the first to swim across the Strait in 1955. Long distance swimming can be a lonely experience but the history of swimming does include the first English Channel cross-Channel race which took place in 1950, with 9 of the 20 entrants finishing the race.
A Tough Swim - The history of swimming took a bit of a twist in 1977 with the introduction of the Iron Man Triathlon in Hawaii. The Triathlon is made up of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike race, followed by a marathon (26 miles). The swimming part of the Triathlon, while by far the shortest in distance of the three events is every bit as grueling as the other two. Deaths have occurred during a Triathlon and the majority of these have occurred during the swimming portion.
Swimming Goes To The Movies - There have been very few movies based upon swimming, with "Swimming Upstream", possibly the best of the lot. Hollywood has made its unique contribution to the history of swimming however. The older among us remember two movie stars in particular, Esther Williams and Johnny Weissmuller. Both were good actors and good swimmers, in fact Weissmuller was an Olympic champion and a world record holder to boot. Esther Williams starred mainly in musicals in the 1950's, and swimming was always a part of the action. Williams was an extremely attractive woman, but you can only watch an extremely attractive woman swim for so long, and then you start hoping for a scene change. One thing the Esther William movies did however, was introduce that particular generation of movie-goers to synchronized swimming. When synchronized swimming became an Olympic event, most who witnessed it probably thought back to the Esther Williams' movies. Synchronized swimming probably got its start in 1907 when an Australian lady by the name of Annette Kellerman gave exhibitions of underwater ballet. Her swimsuit, a shocking creation which revealed arms and legs, resulted in her arrest in the United States, and she had to redesign her outfit. It was still tight fitting though, quite a novelty at the time.
Johnny Weissmuller on the other hand, was a speed swimmer who did not swim to romantic music. His specialty was the 100 meters. In almost every one of the Tarzan movies in which he starred, there was at least one scene featuring Weissmuller swimming madly across a lake or river, while crocodiles slid into the water from the muddy banks. He always made it though, and made it in time to save Jane from something or other. Not everyone realized that the mandatory swimming scene featured one of the truly great athletes in the history of swimming.
But now you know. Milestones in the history of swimming occurred infrequently from ancient times until the 19th century. It was really the Olympic Games which provided the impetus behind many of the milestone which have occurred over the last 150 years or so, and it has been quite a fascinating 150 years, with plenty of heroes - Weissmuller, Esther Williams, Mark Spitz, and others. And we should not forget another American lady to made a splash early in the 20th century, Helene Madison.