Before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, we visited the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim venue. The Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park was a beautiful, spacious, new rowing and canoeing competition site that was also used for the first Olympic 10K Marathon Swim.

But when we tried to look up the area in Google Maps, we could not find anything. Neither could other marathon swimmers or coaches.

But a call to the Google campus in Silicon Valley quickly resolved the situation and voilà…the area around Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park became visible online. The YouTube video below shows the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park site before the rowing-canoeing-open water swimming venue was created.

Open water swimmers often discuss distances and course maps, a topic as ubiquitous among swimmers as hydration and temperatures. The latest on Google Maps among marathon swimmers is here.

For information on the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim, visit here.

Copyright © 2013 by World Open Water Swimming Association