Ice swimmers, stage swimmers, channel swimmers, winter swimmers, marathon swimmers, and adventure swimmers attempt and achieve remarkable feats in the open water on every continent.

While these swimmers are photographed on shore, wave from podiums, give interviews, appear on television, receive awards, and are recipients of online adulation, there are usually many people behind their feats.

They are the unheralded volunteers, the close friends who watch from boat or pool decks, and the officials and administrators who organize the swims, races, and events together. They are the backbone of the sport – the foundations in which aquatic greatness are achieved.

In May in San Diego, California, some of these unsung heroes of the sport will be honored at the 2026 International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Induction Weekend hosted by Carol Sing (84, USA, MSF bio here, IMSHOF Class of 2000) in midst of the Honor Swimmers Andrew Donaldson of Scotland, María Dígna Ezcurra de Ortellado of Paraguay, Bárbara Hernández Huerta of Chile, Alexander Meyer of the USA, and Marwan Saleh of Syria, and Amelia Clemmington “Millie” Gade Corson of Denmark also being honored.

• Irving Davids (USA), Honor Coach
• Cliff Golding (69, Great Britain, MSF bio here), Honor Administrator
• Jacqueline McClelland (Ireland, @jacqueline.mcclelland), Honor Administrator
• John Graeme West, (New Zealand), Honor Administrator
• Captain Roger W. Wheeler (USA), Honor Administrator
• Paul Asmuth (68, USA, MSF bio here), Poseidon Award
• Julian Critchlow (60, Great Britain, MSF bio here), Irving Davids/Captain Roger W. Wheeler Memorial Award
• Carol Sing (84, USA, MSF bio here, IMSHOF Class of 2000) , Dale Petranech Award for Services to the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame

Davids started coaching starting in the 1920s in Southern California with a career that spanned more than 30 years. He coached these IMSHOF Honorees: 1927 Henry Sullivan, the second swimmer to complete a Catalina Channel crossing, James Doty, and Régent Lacoursière. He was also a professional marathon swimmer, lifeguard, pilot, historian, archivist, member of the World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation, member of L Street Club, a Navy pilot, and Captain of the United States Life-Saving Service in Massachusetts.

Golding has been involved as a marathon swimming administrator for 32 years, assisting on over 120 solo marathons by swimmers from 14 different countries including swims in the English Channel, around Jersey Island, Jersey Island to France, Lake Zurich, and Lake Windermere. He has spent more than 25 years as part of the Dover Beach crew, helping and joining hundreds of swimmers to complete their 6-hour qualification swims. All these efforts were as an unpaid volunteer, except for the small stipends given when he acted as an official observer. He has been the Master of Ceremonies for over 20 years at the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation annual dinner and awards ceremony, and at the Jersey Long Distance Swimming Club annual dinner and awards ceremony. He has also sponsored the Junior of the Year award at that dinner for the past 25 years. He was unsuccessful on his first 6 English Channel attempts – and later completed 2 English Channel crossings, 2 Jersey to France crossings, 3 Lake Windermere swims, 3 Lake Zurich swims, and 3 Round Jersey Island circumnavigation swims.

West has served on the World Aquatics Technical Open Water Swimming Committee for over 16 years with five as the Honorary Secretary. He served as a Delegate
at 36 World Aquatic events and as a referee at more than 20 events, and led more than 50 international seminars and officiating schools inAmerican Samoa, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Mauritius, Morocco, Papu New Guinea, South Korea, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Northern Mariana Islands, Qatar, Singapore, Tanzania, Thailand,
Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, and Zimbabwe. He updated the World Aquatics official open water training materials 2010-2025. At the Olympics he served as the Technical Events Manager in 2020 Tokyo and in 2024 Paris, as the Chief Referee at the 2016 Rio, and Assistant Referee at 2012 London. At the World Aquatic Championships, he has served as the Technical Event Manager in 2023 Fukuoka, 2024 Doha, and 2025 Singapore; as the Chief Referee in 2013 Barcelona, 2015 in Kazan, and 2019 in Gwangju, and as Referee in 2007 Melbourne.

Captain Wheeler organized (officials, prize money, spectators, etc.) the professional marathon races in Rhode Island and around Atlantic City and created the Rhode Island State Life-Saving system in the 1930s. In 1935, he was named director of the Division of Lifesaving for the State Department of Public Health for Rhode Island. During World War II, he served in the Army in Mississippi where he designed a life jacket that became standard equipment in the Army and Air Force. Later he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for creating rescue procedures.

Asmuth is primarily known as the dominant professional marathon swimmer in the 1980s, but he also advised and coached the USA open water national team at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics while helping pool swimmers become world champions and medalists at the World Championships and Olympics.

Critchlow has compiled and updated the authoritative list of English Channel solo and relay swimmers since 2004. He has confirmed accurate start times and dates and biographical information on each swimmer to complete the most reputable English Channel database for soloists [see here] and relay swimmers [see here].

Mcclelland has officiated at International Ice Swimming Association events, co-founded and organizes the infinity Channel Swimming, serves as a committee member of the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association, created the NEWS Swim Series, and is a member of the Camlough Lake Water Festival.

Sing has served on the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation from 2002 to 2022 and contributed greatly to the administration of channel swimming and marathon swimming, including hosting this year’s induction ceremony.

Honoring Marathon Swimmers Federation Members

Separate from the IMSHOF inductees listed above, the Marathon Swimmers Federation’s Ultraswimming Awards have also long recognized the selfless dedication of many.

2014 Ultraswimming Awards – Service to Marathon Swimming

• Roger Finch and Tracy Clark (South Africa / New Zealand and the Netherlands) for their tireless back-to-back crewing for Otto Thaning (oldest to swim the English Channel) and Charlotte Samuels (youngest to complete the Triple Crown), with only a few hours’ rest on land in Dover between.
• Greg O’Connor (USA) for his leadership, as co-race director of the Boston Light Swim and President of the Massachusetts Open Water Swimming Association; and for his frequent volunteer work for Northeast Kingdom open water swimming events
• Neil van der Byl and Grace van der Byl (USA) for their support of Catalina and Santa Barbara Channel swimmers and founding the Southern California Open-Water Swim Support Network

2015 Ultraswimming Awards – Service to Marathon Swimming

• Winner: Dan Simonelli (USA) for observing, kayaking, and crewing for 27 Catalina Channel swims in 2015, crewing for one of Chloë McCardel’s English Channel swims, coaching and coordinating youth relay swims of Catalina Channel, English Channel, and Santa Barbara Channel, coaching two solo Catalina swimmers, team Captain, David Yudovin Memorial Catalina Channel Relays, serving as president of the La Jolla Cove Swim Club, and founder of the Open Water Swim Academy
• Finalist: Craig Lenning (USA) for being a mentor and supporter to numerous marathon swimmers; gave advice, training support, and practical help to aspiring swimmers including Jim Jamik, Sarah Thomas, and Karl Kingery
• Finalist: Eileen Burke (USA) for the first female swim across Cape Cod Bay, a long-time staple at Boston Light Swim and Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, and a true friend to anyone at Brighton Beach
• Finalist: Phil White (USA) for creating the Kingdom Swim series in Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, made Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom while opening his house to swimmers from all over the world
• Finalist: Suzie Dods (USA) for de facto host for marathon swimmers visiting San Francisco, organized 24 Hour Relay and first San Francisco Champion of Champions, led educational sessions for aspiring marathon swimmers. leads Introduction to Bay Swimming class out of the Dolphin Club

2016 Ultraswimming Awards – Service to Marathon Swimming

• Winners: David Barra, Rondi Davies, and Alex Arevalo of New York Open Water (USA) for founding New York Open Water and initiating the 20 Bridges Swim, a new iteration of the historically important Swim Around Manhattan. In its inaugural season, NYOW organized the 6th edition of the 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim, the 5th edition of the 2 Bridges Swim, the inaugural Spuyten Duyvil 10K, and 22 solo Manhattan Island circumnavigations over three days.
• Finalists: Sam Jones (United Kingdom) for serving as first mate/co-skipper on the boat Suva, intervening when necessary to help swimmers through difficult moments, being on-call for the Dover Lifeboat, and being a selfless source of help, wise words, and advice
• Finalists: Roy Malinak (USA) for offering volunteer support for Hudson River swims for 4+ years, porting kayaks at North Cove for 7 Manhattan Island Marathon Swim events, volunteering at 2 Bridges for 5 years, and serving as a full-week volunteer on Launch 5 for 8 Bridges, entirely selfless – not a swimmer himself

2017 Ultraswimming Awards – Service to Marathon Swimming

• Winner: Andrew Malinak (USA) for co-founding and leading Northwest Open Water Swimming Association, piloted Sarah Thomas’s world-record Lake Champlain  swim
• Finalists: Tom Linthicum and Dave Van Mouwerik (USA) for founding and directing the Lake Tahoe Marathon Swimming Federation, sanctioned and observed 9 length-of-lake solos in 2017
• Finalists: Greg O’Connor and Elaine Kornbau Howley (USA) for leading the Massachusetts Open Water Swimming Association, and organizing Boston Light Swim and other events
• Finalist: Mark Sheridan (United Kingdom) for being a committee member and serving as a race director for British Long Distance Swimming Association
• Finalist: Scott Zornig (USA) for serving as President and sanctioning authority for the Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association

2018 Ultraswimming Awards – Service to Marathon Swimming

• Winner: Lynn Kubasek (USA) for observing 56 marathon swims, supporting 25 swimmers as either kayaker or feeder, spending countless hours videotaping, editing and chronicling 84 different marathon swims, serving on the board of directors for SBCSA since 2009 and as associate director of Swim Camp Catalina and Swim Camp Mexico since 2014, co-founding Laguna Beach Open Water Swimmers which grew from 3 swimmers in 1987 to over 350 swimmers while making over 9000 bars of soap as gifts for swimmers
• Finalist: Forrest Nelson (USA) for being the founder and president of Tampa Bay Marathon Swim, organizing and supporting numerous solo swims in Florida waters
• Finalist: Phil White (USA) for being the founder of Kingdom Games and Northeast Kingdom Open Water Swimming Association and organizing the Kingdom Swim week events

2019 – 2020 Ultraswimming Awards – Service to Marathon Swimming

• Phil White (USA) for being the founder of Kingdom Games and Northeast Kingdom Open Water Swimming Association

The International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Class of 2026 Inductions & Awards Ceremony is being held in May – and is sold out due to high demand. For more information, visit www.imshof.org.

© 2026 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

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