Summertime Swimming With And By Chloë McCardel
Courtesy of WOWSA, English Channel.
It is not many swimmers have the opportunity to meet kings, but few swimmers have such a global reputation as channel swimmer Chloë McCardel.
In December, McCardel was invited to meet the King of Bahrain, HM Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, at the Bahrain Ironman 70.3 where she competed in a triathlon relay with 4-time Olympic gold medalist Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah and Olympic silver medalist and 30-time Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish.
Her international accolades came while being months away from her home in Australia.
There is usually no swimmer as active as Chloë McCardel is on the English Channel – and this summer was no different as she pushed her English Channel career total to 31 crossings with 24 Channel Swimming Association awards. She completed another 4 solo crossings this summer:
* 10 hours 35 minutes on July 23rd
* 10 hours 26 minutes on August 2nd
* 10 hours 4 minutes on August 12th for which she received the CSA 2019 Awards for the Fastest Solo Swim and the Fastest Swim by a Lady
* 11 hours 37 minutes on September 2nd for which he received the CSA 2019 Award for the Fastest Swim on the Highest Tide
She also dedicated significant time and effort to coach 6 English Channel soloists and 3 relays:
Coached Athletes:
* Jason Osuchowski (Australia) in 11 hours 44 minutes on August 3rd
* Nick Mauger (Australia) in 10 hours 42 minutes on August 8th
* Peter Tucker (Australia) in 15 hours 38 minutes on August 21st for which he received the Channel Swimming Association 2019 Award for the Oldest Successful Swimmer at 63 years old
* Kiel Johns (Australia) in 14 hours 7 minutes on August 22nd
* Callum Eade (New Zealand) in 10 hours 56 minutes on August 23rd who raised over $100,000 for cancer charity
* Rick Seirer (Australia) in 29 hours 46 minutes in a 2-way crossing on August 27th for which he received the Channel Swimming Association 2019 Award for the Most Meritorious Swim (oldest CSA swimmer to swim a solo two-way crossing)
Coached Relays:
* Tenacious Turtles (Australia) with Justine Malone + Andrea Buckland + Sheeana Dhanji + Charles Evans + Heather Urie in 13 hours 43 minutes on August 12th
* Home and Away (Great Britain) with Ben Taylor + James Atkinson + Kate Mackinnon Milner + Jodie Quinn in 11 hours 55 minutes on September 9th
* Can Too (Australia) with Kim Cook + John Cadden + Grant Campbell + Elizabeth Crowhurst + Glenda Hunter-Brittain in 14 hours 34 minutes on 19th September 19th
In addition as she headed home to Australia, she stopped off in Southern California to complete a solo Catalina Channel crossing in 10 hours 5 minutes and achieve the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming in the process.
She will be back in both the English Channel and Catalina Channel in 2020. She has one more spot available for a solo crossing or relay that is available in the 2020 season and two more available spots in 2021. And she aims to push her Catalina Channel career crossing total to four with an unprecedented 3-way crossing as well as adding to her career English Channel total.
Steven Munatones observed, “McCardel is now within shouting distance of the once-thought unassailable English Channel career crossings record of Alison Streeter MBE at 43. At a reasonable rate (for her) of an average of 4 crossings per season, Chloë may break her record by 2023.”
For more information, visit chloemccardel.com.
Video describes her 124.4 km open water swimming distance world record in the Bahamas.
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