SWIM Magazine Issue 6 Vorige editie

As open-water swimming’s burgeoning popularity continues apace, so the number of films and documentaries that focus on splashing about in the name of fitness and fun has risen. NYAD is the latest to hit our screens – a biopic of US endurance swimmer Diana Nyad – starring none other than Annette Bening and Jodie Foster, and it’s swimmingly good. Turn to page 86 to discover more.
So if you’re thinking of signing up to one of the 150-plus swim challenges taking place across Britain’s rivers, lakes and seas in 2024, you’ll be in good company. Two months ago, 1,000 amateur swimmers took part in the trailblazing mass marathon that is the Dart 10K in Devon. On page 48 we catch up with five of its impassioned participants, each with a different story to tell, as part of this issue’s roundup of some of the summer’s standout open-water events. From skirting the isles of the Scilly archipelago (page 90) to circling the Serpentine (page 20) or tackling the Thames (page 72), newbies and veterans alike share their experiences, and theirs might be all the inspiration you need to push yourself out of your comfort zone and into the open water next year.
Speaking of inspiration, few stories are as loaded with it as Andreas Waschburger’s. The German swimmer tells us what it took to smash the English Channel record by a mind-blowing ten minutes on page 6. Maintaining a blistering pace was key to Andreas’s success, and if you’re keen to make improvements to yours then Swim Smooth coach Paul Newsome has the answers on page 32.
All that training requires the right fuel, and dietitian Isabel Anderson has advice on including the optimum amount of fibre in your pre-swim snacks on page 62. And finally, if you’re one of the thousands of competitors who’s recently finished an event you’d been training for, elite British swimmer Amber Keegan has some tips on banishing those post-swim blues on page 28. Enjoy the issue.