Retired 2012 Olympic marathon swimmer, world 25 km champion, and winner of the 32 km Traversée Internationale du lac St-Jean Alex Meyer (37, USA, MSF bio here, World Aquatics bio here) spent many years in the pool and open water working out hard and long.
His dream of swimming in the open water was seeded by his age group coach in Ithaca, New York.
He tells his story above from his home base of Austin, Texas – see interview above.
2009 FINA World Championships
He also talked about being disqualified for swimming into Shelley Clark at the 2009 FINA World Championships while being in 4th place in his first 25 km international race. He became highly motivated and confident by that unique disqualification (the men and women were competing in separate races on the 25 km course in Rome) and felt that he could win a world championship title after his disqualification – a dream that came true within a year.
2010 World Open Water Swimming Championships
The culmination of the 6th FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships on July 23rd 2010 in lac Saint-Jean in Québec, Canada was a classic 25 km mano-a-mano dual between Meyer and the-then reigning 10 km and 25 km world champion (and fellow IMSHOF Honor Swimmer) Valerio Cleri of Italy. Back and forth the duo swam, right to the very end.
Video of the finish courtesy of Mohamed Marouf (fellow IMSHOF Honor Swimmer) who was in the stands at the finish of lac St-Jean. Etienne Couture also captured the final sprint from the official’s boat. The two men zig-zagged over the course.
I was on the finish pontoon as a FINA official and swam the two men swim all over the course. Meyer swam without a swim cap on and Cleri wore a white swim cap with Petar Stoychev coming in third.
Men’s 25 km Top 10 Results:
- Alex Meyer (USA) 5 hours 32 minutes 39.38
- Valerio Cleri (Italy) 5 hours 32 minutes 40.40
- Petar Stoychev (Bulgaria) 5 hours 33 minutes 50.29
- Edoardo Stochino (Italy) 5 hours 35 minutes 8.46
- Bertrand Venturi (France) 5 hours 36 minutes 10.75
- Simon Tobin (Canada) 5 hours 37 minutes 9.74
- Josef Kinderwater (USA) 5 hours 37 minutes 32.67
- Joanes Hedel (France) 5 hours 37 minutes 48.38
- Damián Blaum (Argentina) 5 hours 39 minutes 27.33
- Libor Smolka (Czech Republic) 5 hours 39 minutes 31.30
62nd Traversée internationale du lac St-Jean 2016201 Traversée internationale du lac St-Jean
He also talked about having fellow IMSHOF Honor Swimmer Paul Asmuth on his escort boat, coaching and feeding him on his final race at the 2016 Traversée internationale du lac St-Jean – his swan song race that he won decisively.
- Alexander Meyer, USA 6 hours 27 minutes 59 seconds
- Edoardo Stochino, Italy 6 hours 31 minutes 5 seconds
- Tomi Stefanovski, Macedonia 6 hours 39 minutes 28 seconds
- Édouard Lehoux, France 6 hours 40 minutes 57 seconds
- Evgenij Pop Acev, Macedonia 6 hours 41 minutes 42 seconds
- Aquiles Balaudo, Argentina 6 hours 47 minutes 13 seconds
- Bertrand Venturi, France 6 hours 50 minutes 51 seconds
- Xavier Desharnais, Canada 6 hours 51 minutes 2 seconds
- Aleksandar Ilievski, Macedonia 6 hours 52 minutes 20 seconds
- Gabriel Pouliot, Canada 7 hours 5 minutes 47 seconds
- Simon Pistor, Germany 7 hours 22 minutes 42 seconds
- Xavier Théroux, Canada 8 hours 3 minutes 51 seconds
Open Water Insights
Meyer also created Open Water Insights (OWI), a groundbreaking data insights application that centralizes the sport’s vital information, including results and rankings. OWI doesn’t just collect data; it also transforms the data into powerful visualizations that help athletes and coaches understand their performance, track progress, and strategize for success.
Swimmers and coaches can now analyze their race outcomes throughout the year and over time, compare themselves to other athletes, and identify trends – either positively or negatively – that can help with their training and sponsorship. OWI is not just a tool; the platform is an innovative catalyst that empowers the swimmers and help professionalize the sport.
Meyer approached World Aquatics and offered a collaboration so they could collectively make the platform more user-friendly and insightful..
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