The Sun Moon Lake International Swimming Carnival is the largest open water swimming event in the world with upwards to 25,000 participants. It is held in Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan.
It is an impressive event with incredible logistics in the 3.3 km cross-lake swim in Jih Yueh Tan.
Other than the 7.1 km Xiamen-Kinman Swim event and the 3 km Kenting Sea Swim in the south, there are not a lot of organized sea swim in Taiwan. The government and local authorities discourage sea swimming as been too dangerous and risky.
But 30-year-old swim coach Wen-Erh Hsu (@wen_swims_the_channel) is trying valiantly to change that equation.
Frustrated with the lack of opportunities to swim in the sea within driving distances of her home in Taipei, she looked overseas to do her first marathon swim – a 10 km sea swim in Thailand.
From there, she did some domestic channel crossings in Taiwan and then got inspired by Scottish Oceans Seven swimmer Andy Donaldson.
She then found her way to England in May 2024 to learn more. From that point, there was no stopping her.
She first completed a crossing of Lake Windermere in England in 5 hours 17 minutes and then booked an English Channel slot for 2025. But good fortune was on her side and she was offered a slot in July – which she took and ended up completing the 33.5 km crossing of English Channel from England to France in 12 hours 17 minutes. Next, she was off to America’s West Coast where she took on the 32.3 km Catalina Channel betwen Santa Catalina Island and the Southern California mainland, finishing in 13 hours 21 minutes in August. Her season culminated with a 45.9 km 20 Bridges Swim around Manhattan Island in New York City where she achieved the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming in October and became an inspirational icon in Taiwan.
In her interview with International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame chairperson Ned Denison above, she reveals her plans for the 2025 season and beyond.
© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
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