Maya Merhige, 15, Completes 20 Bridges Swim Around Manhattan for Charity
Maya Merhige, a 15-year-old from Berkeley, California, completed the legendary 20 Bridges swim around the island of Manhattan.
The 28.5-mile swim was done to raise funds for cancer research in partnership with Swim Across America. She completed the time, starting at 6 p.m. on Saturday evening, in eight hours, 43 minutes.
Maya Merhige; Photo Courtesy: Swim Across America
Merhige is one of the youngest swimmers ever to manage the 20 Bridges swim, part of the Triple Crown of open water swims.
“I swim for each and every single person that has ever been touched by cancer. Whether it’s for a patient, a doctor, a family member, or a friend, I swim for them all,” Merhige said in a Swim Across America press release. “Cancer is one of the most devastating things to go through, and I swim to honor all of those who use all of their strength to fight this disease. Although I swim for all of them, there is one specific friend whose spirit especially fuels me. Sam Hallward, a family friend of mine, passed away from brain cancer (DIPG) in December 2022 at the age of 12. He was one of the most outgoing and adventurous kids I knew, and I just know that he would have loved to be in all of the awesome places that I get to go while swimming.”
Merhige is already an accomplished open water swimmer. She is the youngest female swimmers to complete several open water feats, including the Angel Island and Three Rocks swims in San Francisco Bay, the 21-mile crossing between Catalina Island and Los Angeles and the Tahoe Triple Crown of the Vikingsholm courses (21 miles long, 12 wide and 10.8 deep). She is also the youngest swimmer, male or female, to swim the Kaiwi Molokai Channel in Hawaii, a passage that took 27 hours and 33 minutes.
In all, she’s made eight certified marathon swims. She aspires to take down the Triple Crown, needing to add the English Channel swim next year.
Merhige’s swims have raised more than $60,000 for pediatric cancer research. She is a regular participant in her local Swim Across America open water swim in San Francisco under the Golden Gate Bridge. That fundraiser benefits CSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute and the USCF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco Survivors of Childhood Cancer Program. She began swimming to support Team Susan Survives, for family friend Susan Helmrich.
Merhige is also a survivor in her own right, having a grapefruit-size benign tumor removed from her pancreas in March that had caused excruciating pain.
“I’m one of the lucky ones,” Merhige said. “The grapefruit-size tumor was benign and with the exception of a massive scar across my stomach, I will be okay. This brief, but terrifying experience, gave me and my family a small taste of what others go through when confronted with a terrifying medical situation. It gave me even greater respect for what people with cancer experience, and made me even more committed to this effort.”
Swim Across America was founded in 1987 with its first open water event in Long Island Sound. Since that time, the nonprofit organization has raised more than $100 million to fight cancer. In its 36 years of “making waves to fight cancer,” more than 100,000 swimmers and 150 Olympians have swum the circumference of the earth three times, uniting a movement to fight cancer that has created a groundswell of support spanning all generations. Today, more than 24 communities hold open water swims and charity pool swims each year, from Nantucket to under the Golden Gate Bridge, which support innovative cancer research, detection and patient programs. Visit their website for more information.