David Buckley first started to swim in 2018 and completed his first open water mile in 2019 in a wetsuit in the 21°C water in his native Ireland.
A wristwatch helped him set parameters in the pool. He increased to 4 km in 2020, but the COVID pandemic slowed him down a bit. He dropped down to a 1 minute 40 minute pace in a 3 km race that really energized him – even if he was still swimming in his wetsuit. As an engineer, he kept on focusing on his stroke mechanics and sought out experienced coaches and finally became committed to doing a marathon swim.
Along the way, one of his coaches commented on his swimming style, “That is not swimming, that is just not drowning.”
But nothing beat down his ambitions and dreams.
Eventually, the father of four, enthusiastically supported by his wife, crossed the English Channel in a much-faster-than-average in 10 hours 50 minutes this July. His crossing path is shown below, escorted by Ray Brickell and Reg Brickell, Jr.
Buckley described his journey to International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame chairperson Ned Denison above.
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