eBusiness Weekly
Swimming World. — Although the Tokyo Olympic Games commanded the spotlight in 2021, there were many other open water highlights throughout the year.
Elizabeth Beisel makes historic swim, raises 130km
Olympic swimmer Elizabeth Beisel became the first woman to swim to Block Island, a 10.4-mile trip off the coast of Rhode Island. The Block Cancer swim, done in memory of her late father, raised more than $130 000 for cancer research and awareness via a partnership with Swim Across America.
Beisel’s swim lasted five hours, 19 minutes, departing from Matunuck Beach just after 6a.m on September 26. She was greeted on the island by her mother, Joannie, and brother, Danny. A group of supporters also awaited her at Ballad’s Beach Resort.
“I felt amazing the first three hours,” Beisel told the Providence Journal. “I was like, ‘Ah, this is cake.’ Then the current started to pick up. The swell started to pick up. There was a bit of a (riptide) coming into Block Island, and that’s kind of when I started to get discouraged.”
The 29-year-old Beisel, who had never participated in an open-water race before, is a native of Rhode Island. She won a silver medal in the women’s 400 IM and a bronze in the 200 backstroke at the 2012 London Olympics. The former University of Florida standout also swam at the 2008 and 2016 Olympics.
Beisel’s father, Ted Beisel, died in July after a battle with pancreatic cancer. After her work commentating on the Tokyo Olympics for NBC, Elizabeth Beisel turned her attention to the Block Island swim.
“I just wish my dad was here, honestly,” Beisel said. “I know that he’s here in spirit. Everybody who has fought cancer and who’s beat cancer — this is for them.”
Erica Sullivan, David heron win 10k open water national titles
Erica Sullivan (Sandpipers of Nevada) and David Heron (Mission Viejo) took the 2021 USA Swimming Women’s and Men’s 10K open water national titles, April 16, in Fort Myers, Fla.
Sullivan, 20, a University of Texas commit, led the women’s race from start to finish, winning in 2 hours, 2 minutes, 43 seconds. Teammate Katie Grimes, 15—the youngest American Olympic swimmer since Amanda Beard (14) in 1996 and who finished fourth in the 800 free in Tokyo—took the 18-and-under national title with her 2:05:25 fourth-place showing at nationals.
Heron, 26, held off 20-year-old Brennan Gravley in the men’s race by one second, winning in 2:05:24.
As Cunha tried to break away late in the race, two swimmers managed to stay close: the Netherlands’ Sharon van Rouwendaal and Australia’s Kareena Lee. Van Rouwendaal, the defending gold medalist from the 2016 Olympics in Rio, had a similar race strategy as Cunha and used a late surge to earn the silver medal in Tokyo.
In fact, after nearly two hours of swimming, Cunha was able to maintain her body-length lead over van Rouwendaal, getting to the touchpad just 9-tenths ahead of her Dutch rival, 1:59:30.8 to 1:59:31.7 — and only 1.7 seconds ahead of Lee at 1:59:32.5.
The gold was Cunha’s first-ever Olympic medal and the second-ever medal for Brazil in open water, as Poliana Okimoto took bronze at Rio.
“This is my third Olympic Games,” Cunha said after the race. “In 2008, I had no chance, in 2012 I didn’t qualify, and Rio 2016 was not the result we expected.
“We arrived here in Tokyo wanting — as much as you can — this medal, and around 10 days (before the race), I said to my coach that for my opponents to win this race, it will be very difficult because I want it so hard, so much . . . and I’m really well-prepared.”
James Savage (14) youngest to complete lake tahoe triple crown
On August 1, 14-year-old James Savage of Los Banos in northern California became the youngest person to swim the entire length of Lake Tahoe.
Savage, who completed the crossing in about 12 hours, has now successfully swum all three distances of the Lake Tahoe Triple Crown: the length, the width and Vikingsholm, which transverses the southern portion of the lake, known for its pine tree-lined beaches and ski resorts.
Each swim is more than 10 miles.
“I had no doubts whatsoever,” mother Jillian Savage told the Tahoe Daily Tribune after her son’s most recent accomplishment. “He’s been swimming almost every day — six, seven days a week — since he was 8. With open water, it’s just what he does.
But mentally, even though it takes a whole bunch of us to make the swim possible, he’s really out there by himself.”
Savage swam the width of the lake last year at age 13, also becoming the youngest to do so.
And at age 8, he swam in the San Francisco Bay from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco, achieving his very first open water goal!
Ana Marcela Cunha continues to be the world’s most dominant woman in open water, capturing Swimming World’s Female Open Water Swimmer of the Year title in 2019 and 2021. (Because of the Covid -19, the award was not presented in 2020.)
In the biggest race of the past five years, the Brazilian star was at her best at this past summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games, surging to the 10K open water gold medal.
Twenty-five women qualified for the race, which began at Odaiba Marine Park.
She didn’t lead from the outset. In fact, she didn’t even lead for most of the course. It was Ashley Twichell who set the pace and led for most of the race, but Cunha swam right with the American. Germany’s Leonie Beck went into the top group on Lap 6 of the seven-lap course, but once Cunha got back in front early in the final lap, she never surrendered the lead.
But it wasn’t as simple as all of that.
As Cunha tried to break away late in the race, two swimmers managed to stay close: the Netherlands’ Sharon van Rouwendaal and Australia’s Kareena Lee.
Van Rouwendaal, the defending gold medalist from the 2016 Olympics in Rio, had a similar race strategy as Cunha and used a late surge to earn the silver medal in Tokyo.
In fact, after nearly two hours of swimming, Cunha was able to maintain her body-length lead over van Rouwendaal, getting to the touchpad just 9-tenths ahead of her Dutch rival, 1:59:30.8 to 1:59:31.7—and only 1.7 seconds ahead of Lee at 1:59:32.5.
The gold was Cunha’s first-ever Olympic medal and the second-ever medal for Brazil in open water, as Poliana Okimoto took bronze at Rio.
In 2019, Florian Wellbrock was the world’s premier distance swimmer both in the pool and in open water. The German was actually competing in open water for the first time at the World Championships, and he emerged with a gold medal in the 10K race, edging out France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier by just 2-tenths to capture the world title.
A week-and-a-half later, Wellbrock out-dueled rivals Mykhailo Romanchuk and Gregorio Paltrinieri to win the world title in the 1500 freestyle. He set himself up to head to the Tokyo Olympics as a favourite in both events after finishing just 32nd in the 1500 at his first Games in Rio. — swimmingworldmagazine.org
