Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
The English-language version of Hardships Of A Marathonswimmer written by Monique Blok Wildschut is now available on Amazon.
It was originally published in 2015 in Wildschut’s native Dutch, entitled Ontberingen van een marathonzwemster.
Wildschut obviously knows her subject matter extremely well. She was inducted in 1993 as an Honour Swimmer in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame and in 2016 as a Honor Swimmer in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Wildschut dominated the women’s marathon swimming professional circuit from the mid-1980’s to the early 1990’s when she was the six-time World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation champion from 1983 – 1988.
She won races including the 22 km IJsselmeer Zwemmarathon in the Netherlands, the 42 km Traversée Internationale du lac Memphrémagog in Canada, the 32 km Traversée Internationale du lac St-Jean in lac St-Jean in Canada, the 36 km Maratona del Golfo Capri-Napoli in Italy, the 36 km Atlantic City Around The Island Marathon Swim, and completed two fast English Channel crossings: 8 hours 44 minutes in 1982 and 8 hours 19 minutes in 1984.
There are only 43 dual inductees in the history of the International Swimming Hall of Fame and International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, representing the crème de la crème of the open water swimming world:
1. Captain Matthew Webb (Great Britain), 1963 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 1965 ISHOF Honor Swimmer
2. Gertrude Ederle, 1963 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 1965 ISHOF Honor Swimmer
3. Johnny Weissmuller, 1965 ISHOF Honor Swimming and 1970 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer
4. Greta Andersen, 1964 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 1969 ISHOF Honor Swimmer
5. Cavill Family (Australia), 1967 IMSHOF Honour Swimmers and 1970 ISHOF Honor Contributors
6. Florence Chadwick, 1966 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 1970 ISHOF Honor Swimmer
7. Keo Nakama, 1967 IMSHOF Honour Swimming and 1975 ISHOF Honor Swimmer
8. Lynne Cox, 1982 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2000 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
9. Annette Kellerman, 1965 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 1974 ISHOF Honor Contributor
10. James ‘Doc’ Counsilman, 1976 ISHOF Honor Coach and 1981 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer
11. William Forest ‘Buck’ Dawson, 1993 IMSHOF Honour Contributor and 1986 ISHOF Honor Contributor
12. John Kinsella, 1978 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 1986 ISHOF Honor Swimmer
13. Penny Lee Dean, 1980 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 1996 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
14. Abdul Latif Abou Heif, 1964 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 1998 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
15. Gerald Forsberg, 1965 IMSHOF Honour Administrator and 1988 ISHOF Honor Pioneer Open Water Contributor
16. Horacio Iglesias, 1968 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2003 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
17. Cynthia Nicholas, 1978 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2005 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
18. Alison Streeter MBE, 1985 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2006 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
19. Shelley Taylor-Smith, 1989 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2008 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
20. Herman Willemse (Netherlands), 1963 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2008 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
21. Kevin Murphy (Great Britain), 1977 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2009 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
22. Paul Asmuth (USA), 1982 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2010 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
23. Michael P. Read MBE, 1978 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2011 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
24. Chad Hundeby, 1996 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2012 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
25. Cliff Lumsdon (Canada), 1969 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2013 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
26. Mercedes Gleitze, 1969 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2013 ISHOF Honor Pioneer Open Water Swimmer
27. Sandra Bucha, 2014 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2014 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
28. Judith van Berkel-de Nijs, 1964 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2014 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
29. Jon Erikson, 1981 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2014 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
30. David Yudovin, 1999 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2014 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
31. George Young, 1963 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2014 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
32. Dale Petranech, 1995 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2014 ISHOF Honor Contributor
33. Claudio Plit (Argentina), 1981 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2014 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
34. Irene van der Laan (Netherlands), 1985 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2015 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
35. Donald Watson (USA), 2013 IMSHOF Honour Administrator and 2015 ISHOF Honor Coach
36. Drury Gallagher, 2010 IMSHOF Honour Administrator and 2012 International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame Honor Administrator
37. Jim Moran, 1985 IMSHOF Honour Administrator and 1995 ISHOF Gold Medallion Award
38. Karlyn Pipes, 2007 IMSHOF (masters) Honor Swimmer and 2015 ISHOF Honor Masters Swimmer
39. Larisa Ilchenko, 2011 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2016 ISHOF Honor Swimmer
40. Desmond Renford, 1978 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2016 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
41. Monique Wildschut, 1993 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2016 ISHOF Honor Swimmer
42. Maarten van der Weijden, 2011 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2017 ISHOF Honor Swimmer
43. Petar Stoychev, 2008 IMSHOF Honour Swimmer and 2018 ISHOF Honor Open Water Swimmer
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