BLUF (Bottom Line Upfront): Artificial intelligence (AI) will benefit the sport of open water swimming in myriad ways:

• In the short term, open water swimmers will benefit from AI by optimizing their training programs.
• Over the medium term, open water swimmers will benefit from AI by optimizing their stroke techniques and stroke turnover in different conditions and water temperatures.
• Over the long term, open water swimmers and their pilots and crews will gain knowledge of optimal course directions in real time during marathon swims and channel crossings. Coincidentally, the sport of open water swimming will increase its allure as an adventurous, athletic challenge and healthful activity as more and more humans will have an increasingly reduced need and desire to be physically active in an AI-driven world.

Predictions on how AI is currently impacting the sport are well known:

• AI can learn, understand, and recommend optimal year-long training menus and specific sets in the pool based on specific goals, both short-term (within a year) and long-term.

As individual data from smartwatches combined with weather conditions, wind speeds, and water temperature data become increasingly uploaded and analyzed by AI, I assume the following:

• AI can learn, understand, and recommend optimal training distances and pace in the open water under myriad number of conditions and temperatures, from calm and warm to turbulent and cold – including for those over the age of 50 and those who are disabled.
• AI can learn, understand, and recommend training distances, sets, intervals, pace, and the number of workouts per week in the pool to optimize improvement in speed and stamina.
• AI can learn, understand, and recommend optimal heart rates, stroke-per-minute rates, the beat of our kicking, breaths per minute, body positions and rotation, and hydration and feeding needs under myriad number of distances, water conditions (due to wind, waves, currents), and water temperatures. We can learn how best to swim in every different condition from calm and warm to turbulent and cold – including for those over the age of 50 and those who are disabled.
• AI can learn, understand, and inform us of the distances, water conditions (due to wind, waves, currents), and water temperatures where we are faster or slower than those of similar ages.
• AI can learn, understand, and inform us of specific body parts, muscle groups, and body weights and compositions that can optimize our speed and stamina. AI can tell us what we have work to on in order to increase our flexibility, strength, speed, and VO2 max, including recommending dryland workouts and nutrition programs to optimize our swimming performances. AI can tell us how or if we should increase the flexibility of our ankles, the strength of our lats or triceps, the aerobic endurance, and improve our Body Mass Index to swim faster.
• AI can learn, understand, and predict the impact of sleep quality and quantity (the night before and the days leading up to an event) on our swim performances in open water competitions, ice swims, marathon swims, and channel crossings.
• AI can predict the marine environment (i.e., wind, waves, currents, tides, and water temperatures) that can impact mass open water swimming competitions, solo marathon swims, and solo and relay channel crossings in real time. AI can provide optimal directions and speeds to swim specific times.
• AI can predict the winning pace of the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim and World Championship 5 km, 10 km, 4×1500 team relay, and 3 km Knockout Sprints or local open water swimming events so competitors can know how fast they must train to earn a podium position.
• AI can identify islands, channels, rivers, bays, lakes, and other open bodies of water that can be safely explored by open water swimmers (i.e., swum to, swim between or across, or around for the first time in human history – and predict which direction will be easier to swim across, to, or between.

Exciting times for those who want to explore more and reach their true potential.

When we think about a more global – and complex – prediction of how AI will impact the sport of open water swimming, I am very optimistic.

I think a growing reliance on AI will lead many individuals throughout society – over time – to reduce their need for being physical and even thinking for themselves. I think of the many instances where I see stairs next to escalators. A vast majority of people instinctively take the escalator and few take the stairs. The escalators provides an easier, more convenient, and quicker way to reach another floor.

Similarly, I think many people – now and increasingly in the future – will make similar decisions: they will “take the AI escalator” rather than the physical and mental labor “to take the stairs”. And the more often they “take the AI escalator”, the more laborious and increasingly bothersome it will be “to take the stairs”.

The speed, convenience, and ease of taking the theoretical AI escalator will become second nature to many, at every level. Why think? Why do? When AI can both think and do for us? The natural human ability to “take the stairs” will become a thing of the past, for many.

But not all.

Some, including open water swimmers, very much enjoy experiencing Mother Nature first hand. We love the tactile feel of swimming through the open water, the unpredictable challenges of water conditions and temperatures, the feeling of being exhausted or cold, the innate uncertainty of a channel crossing and competition. We love to seek our own potential, visit new lands, make new friends, and explore new open bodies of water.

For those individuals, the increased automation of dryland existence will coincidentally drive us more to the continued challenges and uncertainty – and beauty – of the open water world.

Simultaneously, the increased automation and efficiencies due to AI will enable many to have more freedom to seek athletic endeavors. More free time will lead to more training opportunities and more challenges to attempt.

Additionally, AI will teach us a lot about how we can improve – even as we age – and can reduce the risks of under-preparing for a marine adventure.

So while many individuals may ultimately become lazier and less inclined to be or remain physically active due to the changes brought upon AI, there will be another segment of society that will look for more adventures and physical challenges in their lives.

And that phenomenon will be an increasing driver of people to the open water world.

© 2025 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“

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