Instead of focusing on his untimely and unfortunate passing, The Daily News of Open Water Swimming has focused on Fran’s wonderfully rich and selfless life. Several articles covering his legacy have been posted: article 1article 2article 3article 4 Petar Stoychev, one of the world’s greatest marathon swimmers of all time who has been participating on […]

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Dave Barra finished the Ederle Swim to add yet another marathon swim under his swim cap for 2010. He did the 9.6-mile Maui Channel between the islands of Lanai and Maui in March in Hawaii. Then the 24-mile (38.6K) Tampa Bay Marathon Swim in Florida in April in 10 hours and 49 minutes. Then completed

The Daily News of Open Water Swimming has written before on how geese can help open water swimmers by giving them hints on where to draft. Geese flying in formation is one example of nature’s organizational biomimetics. That is, when geese migrate to another location, they fly in a V formation…for various reasons: By flying

Collis Williams won his third consecutive Tex Robertson Highland Lakes Challenge with the fastest cumulative stage swim time over the last five days. Collis’ aggregate time for the 5-lakes-in-5-days Monster Challenge was 5 hours 30 minutes and 58 seconds. Californian Ali Hall won the women’s division with a time of total 6 hours 47 minutes

Lance Ogren, a retired 39-year-old firefighter from New York, won the 17.5-mile Ederle Swim in record time. Lance won in 5 hours and 10 minutes for his second victory in this race (also in 2008) while breaking his own men’s record. A slew of Triple Crown swimmers followed as the entire field finished in water

The untimely passing of Fran Crippen reminds us of the untimely passing of another American distance champion Steve Prefontaine. Different sports, different personalities, but similar types of champions who had similar work ethics while making themselves and others around them better. Not just medalists. Not just winners. Not just highly competitive athletes. But individuals who

Olympian Mark Warkentin shared a touching story about Fran Crippen. The story is typical of the hundreds of other warm memories that friends, teammates, competitors and coaches have of Fran, the young open water swimming star who was tragically lost yesterday, whether he was onshore, in the water, on the pool deck: “[At the FINA

A gentlemen. A hero. An inspiration. Fran Crippen leaves behind a legacy. Not only as a world-class athlete, but as someone you would be proud to have as a son, brother, teammate and friend. He was always there for his very close-knit family. He was always lending an ear and hand to friends. He was