Courtesy of Phil White, visionary, catalyst, and organizer behind the Kingdom Games.
We started the Kingdom Swim 15 years ago in Vermont in 2009 on the last Saturday in July. The event included courses of 10 miles, 3 miles, 1 mile, and shorter distances just for kids. We added a 6-mile swim (now 10 km) in 2011 and a 15-mile swim (now 25 km) Border Buster in 2014. Each year, on Friday evening before the swim, we host a Memphremagog Costume Parade down Main Street in Newport, Vermont to welcome swimmers and kayakers to town, followed by a pasta dinner on the shores of Lake Memphremagog.
All to the rallying cry: NO LANES – NO LINES – NO LIMITS.
Project Welcome
Kingdom Swimmers is a great spirited and good-hearted tribe of open water swimmers, but as a group, we are way too white and it is about time we did something about it.
Open water swimming has grown substantially over the past 15 years. Long-standing communities of open water swimmers have strengthened and grown. Other pods have sprung up all across the nation and have blossomed and grown during this time.
During this period, the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont has become well-recognized around the country and the globe as a world class venue and unlikely epicenter for open water swimming. The quality and beauty of our lakes, the low levels of boat traffic, the community of local support, and the camaraderie these events instill have all contributed to this evolution. Kingdom Games now promotes, organizes, and hosts over 50 days of swimming, summer and winter alike. Over the years, these swims have drawn thousands of swimmers and kayakers to the lakes of the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont.
It has been an idyllic journey, except for the fact that the population of swimmers and kayakers who have flocked to the Kingdom over the years has been largely white, which reinforces a dangerous misconception that swimming is only for people of a certain background or socioeconomic status. This is sadly because of a variety of reasons, including financial barriers, cultural factors, and a history of discrimination in swimming that have converged to limit access to local pools in the United States. That lack of access has translated into few people of color being able to and comfortable in making the transition to open water. Swimming, and open water swimming specifically, has evolved largely as a White Space in the United States.
Some leaders and members of the open water swimming community have recognized this is a problem and have begun making concerted efforts to promote diversity in the sport. That includes us at Kingdom Games.
One way to do this is by lowering the financial barriers to access. Another is to actively welcome participation by members of the BIPOC [black, indigenous, and other people of color] community in specific programs and events. Project Welcome aims to do both of those things with the goal of encouraging more people of color to join our merry band in the Northeast Kingdom.
We estimate that the average minimum cost of swim fees, travel, meals, and lodging at a Kingdom Games swimming event is about US$1,000 per swimmer. That is what is spent for the actual event itself. It doesn’t include the cost of swimsuits, goggles, and pool fees related to training.
We are looking to raise funds from the open water swimming community to allow us to welcome members of the BIPOC community to our swims in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont by providing a stipend of US$1,000 to help cover the costs of participation. This is a chance for the swimming community to put its money where its mouth is in a very real way and send a message that we mean it when we say everyone is welcome to join us, and we will remove as many barriers as we can to make that happen.
Your support not only helps fund this project, it’s also a small way to demonstrate that this Welcome comes from the heart of our community.
We have set up a Go Fund Me site Project Welcome to encourage our open water swimming community to support this effort. Your contributions WILL make a difference.
Kingdom Swim
While Kingdom Swim has drawn many experienced marathon swimmers, it also has served as a ladder for many swimmers starting “short” but set on going long. Vera Rivard and her younger sister, Margaret, started with the 1 mile and ¼ mile swim when they were 10 and 7. Each year after that, they swam longer distances, eventually completing the Border Buster. They then completed In Search of Memphre, a 25-mile cross-border swim between Newport, Vermont and Magog, Quebec. Each went on to complete the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming when they were 16 years old. Another Triple Crowner, Paula Yankauskas, started as a 3-mile wetsuiter. She worked up the ladder, completing the 10-mile race without a wetsuit, then the Border Buster, then The Search and then on to the Triple Crown.
Charlotte Brynn, then of Stowe, Vermont, also started as a 3-mile wetsuiter in 2009. She swam the 10-mile race without a wetsuit in 2010 and 2011, and has since swum the 25-mile length of Lake Memphremagog, three times in 2011, 2017, and 2023, as well as the 32 mile length of Lake George, the Catalina Channel, and 20 Bridges around Manhattan.
Kristin Jones on her way to winning the 10-mile race in 2013
Project Welcome Launch
In 2022, we launched Project Welcome to provide stipends to BIPOC swimmers to cover registration fees, travel, meals and lodging. That first year we attracted three triathletes from Georgia and have three other swimmers from North Carolina signed up for 2024. We know we have a long ways to go, but Project Welcome is off to a great start. And, we had a blast.
This year’s Kingdom Swim will be held on July 27th 2024. A little over 80 swimmers have already signed up, with room for 70 more.
Online registration is here at NEKOWSA Swim Registration – Kingdom Games.
© Daily News of Open Water Swimming
“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“