I didn't want to comment on the bogus trans-atlantic swim, mostly because it's just not worth the effort. Us real marathon swimmers knew from the start that the entire thing was a load of bollocks. It is frustrating in our sport when things like this happen. Marathon swimming is a very strict sport. Among others, these rules are crucial in the workings of our sport:
1. You do not record swims completed in wetsuits. Wetsuits in the open water :: fins in the pool. They add so much buoyancy, warmth and protection. You may as well do the swim from a canoe.
2. You do not claim to have done swims without accurate proof. When I swim the channel, I will be doing so under the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation, which completely oversees the swim and ensures that I follow all the rules set forth by their federation. This ensures that every swimmer who crosses the channel does so in the same fashion as the other swimmers. It would be entirely unfair for me to take breaks on the boat while I am crossing, because what constitutes a break? 15 minutes? 2 hours? In the alleged Atlantic Ocean swim, 5 days? For swims elsewhere, the same rules apply. Don't touch the boat. Don't swim in shark cages. Don't say you swam something when you have no GPS and hour-to-hour evidence that you actually swam it. Don't swim without an impartial observer. It's really not rocket science.
3. Respect the sport. This is the rule most people completely take for granted. Being a marathon swimmer is an honour. It is a true, humbling privilege for me to find myself included in this sport. Humbling is a key word here. As a pool swimmer, I found myself very humbled and privileged to be able to swim so fast and do so well for my teams. Marathon swimming is different. Yes, it is humbling and an honour to be fast. But it's more than that. It is an honour really to see how the body responds to such arduous conditions. After all, swimming for hours on end in not-very-warm water is not a comfort sport. We're not inside air-conditioned sports halls with Nike trainers and ipods. We're stuck in sometimes brutal waves with brutal winds and brutal jellyfish stings and brutal cold. All with the comfort of a single pair of swimming togs, a single swimming cap, and a single pair of googles. That is all. But to finish swims in these conditions is a feeling only other marathon swimmers can experience. This is why our rules are sacred. To be exploited like this by these stories is not only unfair but intensely disrespectful.
Let's put it this way. You don't see people going around claiming to be faster than Michael Phelps, that they've broken all his records, and then have the media give them oodles of attention and admiration for this. It just doesn't happen. So why does it continue to happen in marathon swimming?
Here is the Associated Press correction.
Correction: Caribbean-Trans-Atlantic Swim story
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — In stories on Feb. 1, 7 and 8, about Jennifer Figge's long-distance swim in the Atlantic, The Associated Press reported erroneously that she had swum across the ocean. Figge swam only a fraction of the 2,100-mile journey. The rest of the time, she rested on her crew's westward-sailing catamaran. Her spokesman, David Higdon, told The AP on Tuesday that her total swimming distance has not been calculated yet, but that due to ocean hazards including inclement weather, he estimates she swam about 250 miles.
And here is a story taken from the National Post.
Doubts raised over swimmer's Atlanic journey
Craig Offman, National Post
Published: Tuesday, February 10, 2009
When Jennifer Figge touched the shores of Trinidad last Thursday, the 56-year-old American completed a 3,400 kilometre, 24-day journey that began on Africa's Cape Verde Islands and ended on an abandoned leper colony. She became the first woman to swim across the Atlantic, a world record, perhaps.
But how much of it did she actually swim?
That is the heated dispute among aquatic marathoners, many of whom apply strict guidelines to these kinds of record-breaking firsts, right down to what the athlete wears. They believe that there is plenty to be skeptical about.
"When you do the math, it means she'd have to swim almost 150 kilometres a day," said Timothy Noakes, professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town."
An expert on extreme cold and endurance, Mr. Noakes helped train British swimmer Lewis Pugh for his famed, one-kilometre North Pole swim. "She couldn't go that fast - even if she ran across the water."
Yet previous transaltantic strokers have arguably swam at roughly the same pace, including two Frenchman - one of them with a kickboard.
Ms. Figge, a resident of Aspen, Colo., is a veteran marathon runner whose ocean-wide ambitions are more vast than her experience in the water. According to her Facebook page, one of her longest swims before this highly publicized crossing was an 83-km, three-day haul from Cay Sal Bank, Bahamas up to Marathon, Fla.
On Jan. 12, Ms. Figge set off from Africa, wearing a red cap and a wet suit, following a 14-tonne catamaran named Carried Away.
A makeshift mobile cage protected her from predators and various amoebic scourges.
"I've always dreamed about being this little thing in the big ocean," she told The Associated Press before her departure. According to the same report, she gave her captain, Billy Ray, a blank cheque with "Deposit to Swim Atlantic" written at the bottom.
Most days, Ms. Figge awoke at about 7 a.m., gorging on carbs while assessing the weather, which apparently was not helpful.
On her best day, she'd last eight hours in her six-metre by four-metre shark net; her least productive burst was just 21 minutes. The crew initially planned on mooring in the Bahamas, but was blown 1,600 km off course.
Once she arrived on the Trinidadian island of Chacachacare, however, she entered a unique class of swimmers.
A little over a decade ago, Frenchman Benoît Lecomte stroked 9,600 kms from Cape Cod, Mass., through the Azores, to Brittany - a 73-day journey. This would average out to 131 kilometres a day.
Four years earlier, a fellow Frenchman, Guy Delage, took a similar route to Ms. Figge's, but with the aid of a kickboard. His swim was unsupervised and has not been accredited.
Ms. Figge's business manager, David Higden, did not respond to an interview request, but he did tell the Guardian that Ms. Figge swam only 19 of the 24 days, and that she never set out to swim the entire distance. "Nobody could swim across the Atlantic. It's physically impossible," he said.
If traversing the Atlantic was not the team's objective, then they should not be surprised to hear that there are doubts about the accomplishment.
"In these swims, you have to provide evidence," Mr. Noakes said. "You need hour-to-hour evidence from a GPS telling us that she was there. It's up to them to prove it."
Mr. Noakes likened these athletes to mountain climbers, and the GPS evidence as the proof of their record. "You can't say you've conquered Everest until you have that photo next to the Chinese flag. This is the same issue: You need that evidence."
Paul Hopfensperger, who crossed the English Channel, also has misgivings. Like Mr. Noakes, he feels that wearing a wetsuit gives a swimmer an unfair advantage such as extra buoyancy and warmth. "People are dubious about this because it asks the question, ‘Where do you stop?' There are rules about this for a reason," said Mr., Hopfensperger, a councillor in Suffolk County, near Cambridge.
Without a wetsuit, swimmers are more prone to hypothermia, sapping them of strength that they would have if they wore some kind of protective gear. It also might fend off jellyfish stings that could otherwise lead to shock.
Best known for her superhuman swimming in frozen waters, Lynne Cox has her doubts about the shark cage, which she said can increase a swimmer's velocity 30% to 40%.
A self-declared purist who wears only goggles, a bathing cap, sunscreen and a swimsuit, the California native stresses the importance of learning what the human body can endure.
But she is also not surprised by the controversy. I can see why people are purist about this and why they should be done this way, not another" said the Swimming to Antarctica author. "But I think it's great for her to have goal like that. And if she felt needed to it that way, then she should do it."
jgal
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