Keri-anne Payne is a double open water world champion, triple Olympian and Olympic silver medallist in the 10k open water marathon at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. She created the Straight-Line Swimming methodology with her husband, triple Olympian David Carry.
straightlineswimming.com
There has always been a perception that because I am from the UK and swam open water that I must be a ‘cold water’ swimmer. This is true of the water in the UK for most of the year, however my 10km races were regulated by FINA and the rules stated that if the water temperature was less than 16 degrees, races were cancelled - so essentially I chased the sun around the world and most races were above 20 degrees (some just below 30 degrees!)
If you asked me to swim in water under 15 degrees I would have run away as fast as possible! However, since retiring from swimming I’ve needed a break from slogging up and down a chlorinated pool and have decided to try winter swimming - not just because it doesn’t require a huge amount of training but because I have heard so many people talking about its amazing benefits and I want to learn more.