Ned Denison - (Author)

International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Highlights Ethics Guidelines For Induction All Halls of Fame and Honor Organizations wish to create and maintain the highest possible reputation. As a result, all face a similar question: What are the correct and appropriate actions, as well as reasons, w...

The 'Firsts' of English Channel Crossings Can Never Be Taken Away (Check Out Some Legendary Efforts) For more than 50 years reporters and historians have likened a 33-kilometer English Channel marathon swim to climbing Mt. Everest. There are a few dramatic differences: About three times as many clim...

Open Water Swimmer Are Not Limited to Eight Lanes In the Pool, But .... One might think that a big wide-open lake or ocean could accommodate thousands of swimmers and, therefore, entry into a race or arranging a solo swim would be easy. The explosion of interest in open water swimming has resulted i...

Marathon Swimming: Where Women Have Outperformed the Men Today, March 8, we celebrate International Women's Day. As a tribute to the women who have contributed to, grown and defined excellence in the sport, Swimming World will run several features throughout the day which celebrate some of the great...

Marathon Swimming in a Shark Cage: A Unique Way to Race in the Open Water You might ask: “Why would anyone knowingly swim in waters frequented by the more dangerous species of sharks (great white, bull and tiger to name just three)?” A silly question really as we witness: Free climbing El Capitan in...

Taking On the S.C.A.R. Challenge: A Major Open-Water Demand Many marathon swimmers look for new and unusual challenges. One of the very different challenges is S.C.A.R., which is four marathon swims in four days. This event is held in the Southwestern desert of the United States in the Salt River ne...

The Wild Nature Of Open Water Starts and Finishes The sport of open water swimming takes several forms. We’ll divide this discussion into three categories: FINA Circuit; Amateur races; and solo swims. Each have their own required starts and finishes. The FINA Circuit for Elite Racers What: Olympics;...

Marathon Swimming: A Look At Some of the Great Streaks and Crossing Records in History All serious swimmers set goals: meters/week, personal bests, beating your nemesis at the next meet, etc. For open water swimmers, there are two additional goals that often come into play: completing a big swim a s...

Open Water Swimming: Achieving the Triple Crown The term “Bucket List” caught the public’s attention in 2007 with the release of a film by the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Their characters were suffering from terminal illnesses and had a list of things they wanted to accompl...

Black History Month: Alick Wickham Opened Doors in Open-Water Swimming By Alice Dearing & Ned Denison At the start of Black History Month (observed in the United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom), we celebrate the role that black swimmers played in the advancement of the art, pastime a...

Ice Swimming: An Extreme Challenge In Temperatures Difficult to Fathom Ice swimming is the fastest growing extreme aquatic sport. Tens of thousands of swimmers now hit the cold water daily and before the COVID restrictions, thousands traveled to events from Siberia to Argentina to Antarctica to the ...

A Guide to Swimming Halls of Fame: Where History Is Celebrated This article will provide an overview of swimming Halls of Fame (international, national and local), the various disciplines that are celebrated, their purpose, how they operate, how to start one and a look at general Halls of Fame that ...

A Look at English Channel Crossing Speed Progressions The English Channel is the standard test for traditional marathon swimmers. As of the end of 2020, 2,157 individuals had completed the swim, compared to 5,788 who had summited Mount Everest. Many of the elite marathon racers (for example, those i...

The Guide to Open Water Swimming: A Look at the Intriguing Tactics and Tricks By Ned Denison Swimming is swimming. But the difference between pool swimming (with individual lanes, a line on the bottom and the protection of lane lines) and open water is dramatic. The word most often used is “physical...

Open Water History: 105 Years of Swimming Around Manhattan Swimming around the center of New York City (45.9km/28.5 miles) has long been a tradition for many swimmers, with hotly contested races between top swimmers also part of history. The challenge consists of strong tides, the flows of three riv...