Personal information | |
---|---|
Born | 1970 (age 53–54) Neptune City, New Jersey, United States |
Home town | Oakhurst, New Jersey, United States |
Sport | |
Sport | Swimming |
Strokes | Long-distance swimming, open water swimming |
Michelle Davidson (born 1970), is a U.S. Masters Swimmer and a long distance, open water swimmer. She is one of only 84 swimmers in the world who have ever accomplished the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, which includes crossing the English Channel and Catalina Channel, and circumnavigating Manhattan Island. [1] [2]
Born in 1970, Davidson grew up in the Oakhurst section of Ocean Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, [3] and graduated in 1989 from Ocean Township High School, where she was captain of the swimming team. [4] She has been a resident of the Ocean Grove section of Neptune Township, New Jersey, and is employed as a teacher at Holmdel High School. She is one of only 84 swimmers in the world who have ever accomplished the Triple Crown of swimming. [1] [2] Either individually, or with her swimming partner Nancy Steadman Martin, she has made seven long distance swims between the years 2000 and 2010. These include:
While known primarily for her long distance swims, she has been named to the U.S. Masters Swimming's list of All Americans on three occasions, having posted the fastest time in an event/age group in at least one of the organization's three official courses. Since 2003, Davidson has competed in 144 U.S. Masters Swimming short course events, winning 73 of these competitions (51%). [2]
In addition to swimming, Davidson is world class paddle boarder who in 2004, was a member of a relay team that paddled from Cuba to Florida; [7] has run five marathons in five states; competed in an Ironman competition; and has won the U.S. Lifeguard Association's "Run-Swim-Run" and Iron Woman competition. [8]
Davidson was an Ocean Grove lifeguard for 26 years and the lifeguard manager for the 15 years.
March 28, 2016, Davidson and long time swim partner, Nancy Steadman Martin swam from Lanai to Maui Island Hawaii the new record setting time: 5 hours 5 minutes.
Oakhurst is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Ocean Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 census, the CDP population was 4,069.
Ocean Township is a township situated on the Jersey Shore in east central Monmouth County, within the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is a bedroom suburb of New York City. Ocean Township has no central downtown and consists of three main unincorporated communities: Oakhurst, Wanamassa, and Wayside. The township is divided into two ZIP codes, 07755 (Oakhurst) and 07712. Small portions have Allenhurst (07711), Deal (07723) and Long Branch (07740) ZIP codes.
Gertrude Caroline Ederle was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder in five events. On August 6, 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Among other nicknames, the press sometimes called her "Queen of the Waves".
Sandy Hook is a barrier spit in Middletown Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The barrier spit, approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) in length and varying from 0.1 to 1.0 mile wide, is located at the north end of the Jersey Shore. It encloses the southern entrance of Lower New York Bay south of New York City, protecting it from the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean to the east.
Florence May Chadwick was an American swimmer known for long-distance open water swimming. She was the first woman to swim across the English Channel in both directions, setting a time record each time. She was also the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Bosporus, and the Dardanelles.
Sunset Beach is on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii and known for big wave surfing during the winter season. The original Hawaiian name for this place is Paumalū. It is a two-mile stretch of mostly beige sand located at 59-104 Kamehameha Highway in Pupukea, 39 miles driving distance from Waikiki. Lifeguards are usually present.
Ocean Township High School (OTHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in the Oakhurst section of Ocean Township, in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the lone secondary school in the Ocean Township School District. OTHS serves residents of all neighborhoods within Ocean Township, including Oakhurst, Wanamassa, Wayside and West Allenhurst.
George Young was a Canadian marathon swimmer who, on 15–16 January 1927, became the first person to swim the 22 mile channel between Catalina Island and the mainland of California. Though familiar to the Toronto swimming community, Young was only seventeen and a relative unknown in America, lacking the national recognition of a number of his competitors. Around three thousand spectators on Catalina Island watched the race begin. Young's 22 mile swim began with the sound of a starter's pistol on the Northeastern edge of Catalina Island at the narrow point of the Harbor at Isthmus Cove at 11:21 AM on Saturday, January 15, 1927, and ended the next morning after 15 hours 44 minutes at 3:06 AM on the rocky shores of Point Vicente Lighthouse, in Rancho Palos Verdes, South of downtown Los Angeles.
Penny Lee Dean is an American long distance swimmer who began her career with her swim across frigid San Francisco bay at age 10. She is best known for having the fastest time for anyone to swim from Catalina to California in 7:15:55 in 1976, and the fastest time to swim the English Channel in 1978 in 7:40.
Helen E. Wainwright, also known by her married name Helen Stelling, was a competition diver and swimmer for the Women's Swimming Association of New York, who represented the United States at the 1920 Summer Olympics, where she won a silver medal in 3-meter springboard diving and in the 1924 Summer Olympics, where she won a silver medal in the 400-meter freestyle. She remains the only woman to ever win Olympic silver medals in both swimming and diving.
Marathon swimming is a class of open water swimming defined by long distances, with 10 kilometers being the unofficially held minimum distance. Routes are typically geographically based or buoy based. Geographical routes include crossings of channels and lakes, circumnavigations of islands, and stretches of coast lines or rivers. Buoy-routes are mainly found in competition events.
The Oceans Seven is a marathon swimming challenge consisting of seven open water channel swims. It was devised in 2008 as the swimming equivalent of the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge. It comprises the North Channel, the Cook Strait, the Molokaʻi Channel, the English Channel, the Catalina Channel, the Tsugaru Strait and the Strait of Gibraltar.
Jacob Abraham "Jabez" "Jappy" Wolffe was a Scottish long distance swimmer and author of swimming books. He attempted but failed to swim the English Channel 22 times, between 1906 and 1921. He came closest to success in the September of 1919, with an attempt of 14 hours 55 minutes, from Shakespeare Cliff, Dover, England "to within a quarter of a mile of the French coast". He is also known for the differing historical accounts of his role as a trainer in the first, failed attempt of Gertrude Ederle to swim the channel.
Karen Burton is an American former competition swimmer who specialized in long-distance freestyle and open water events. While competing in the 25-kilometer open-water event, she represented the United States at the 1998 World Aquatics Championships in Perth, Western Australia, and took a bronze medal in the 1991 World Aquatics Championships. In Open Water championships sponsored by USA Swimming, she placed first in six national open water swimming champion competitions, which included three 15 km (9.3-mile) races and one 25 km (15.5-mile) race.
Amelia "Mille" Gade Corson was a Danish-born American long-distance swimmer who is best known as becoming the seventh person, third American and second woman to successfully swim across the English Channel. Earlier, Corson had completed the swim around Manhattan Island, a distance of 42 miles, and had also completed the swim from Albany, New York, to New York City, swimming the distance in a total of 5 days, 3 hours and 11.5 minutes. The straight-line distance between the two points is 143 miles, but Corson swam an extra 10 miles due to various detours.
Chloë McCardel is an open water swimmer and swim coach from Melbourne, Australia.
Taranath Narayan Shenoy, is a deaf and visually impaired Indian swimmer and an honoree of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. He is a winner of the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, having successfully completed the English Channel, Catalina Channel and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri in 1990.
The Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming is a marathon swimming challenge consisting of three historically important swims:
Bengisu Avcı is a Turkish swimmer specializing in open water swimming. She is holder of the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming. As of February 2024, she completed four of the Oceans Seven swims.