Wednesday, June 05, 2013

For The Win: Australian woman will attempt world-record swim from Cuba to Florida


I promise that the first person to complete this swim will be a swimmer from down under!

Per Capita both Australia and New Zealand produce the best swimmers, sailors, surfers, lifeguards, PERIOD. These guys "own" the topic of water.

The only topic Australia sucks at is literary fiction but that is a topic for a book blog. (Can you name a famous literary author from Australia? Germaine Greer does not count.)

"... [Chloe] McCardel’s team has studied Nyad’s previous attempts in hopes of avoiding some of the hazards she faced along her way.

From For the Win:

"Because it’s comparatively early in the summer, we believe that we’ve got less chance of running into box jellyfish," McCardel said. "They’ll be hanging around but we won’t be running into multitudes of them like Diana did in the past."

McCardel completed a double crossing of the English Channel in 2010 but was unable to become the first Australian to complete a triple crossing (three nonstop swims) in two previous attempts. She estimates that if all goes well, the swim will take between 55-60 hours, an amazingly long time for a person to be in constant motion. ..." 
[Link]

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Patrick White, Tim Winton, Richard Flanagan. Tim Winton, a Wester Australian (in Dirt Music and An Open Swimmer) and Tasmanian Richard Flanagan (in Death of a River Guide) both write a great deal about water. Given the dysfunctional and non-transparent state of Swimming Australia Ltd, I would put more faith in the Australian literary scene in looking for high performance at the international level. However, some parts of recent Aus Swimming's travails would qualify as tragic comedy.

Amit said...

Another attempt foiled by jellyfish again!

Will this feat ever be done? I was really pulling for her.

Diana Nyad is trying yet again, apparently.

Tony Austin said...

Techsuits should be mandatory gear and neoprene should be acknowledged as the only material that can prevent stings in open water events.

Every other sport but swimming acknowledges technology.

I wanted her to make it too. Very saddened by this.