 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Swimming |
| Strokes | Long-distance swimming |
Samuel Richards of Boston, Massachusetts was a long distance swimmer. He won the Boston Light Swim in 1911 and in 1912. In 1913, he swam from the Charlestown Bridge to the Boston Light and back, a distance of about 24 miles. [1]
Richards was a member of the L Street Brownies, a polar bear club based in South Boston. [2]
The Charles River, sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an 80-mile-long (129 km) river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles back on itself several times and travels through 23 cities and towns before reaching the Atlantic Ocean. The indigenous Massachusett named it Quinobequin, meaning "meandering" or "meandering still water".
Captain Matthew Webb was an English seaman, swimmer and stuntman who became the first person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aids. Webb increased the popularity of swimming in England.
Benoit Lecomte is a French-American long-distance swimmer who swam several sections of the Atlantic Ocean in 1998. Many major media outlets initially wrongly reported that he swam the entire distance across the ocean, but the claim was dismissed and is not officially recognized by Guinness World Records since there is uncertainty about the distance that Lecomte actually covered swimming due to the fact he rested and slept on a boat as it drifted and made progress towards their final destination.
Lynne Cox is an American long-distance open water swimmer, writer, and speaker. She is best known for being the first person to swim between the United States and the Soviet Union, in the Bering Strait, a feat which has been recognized for easing the Cold War tensions between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Open water swimming is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers. Competitive open water swimming is governed by the International Swimming Federation, World Aquatics, except when it is part of multi-sport events, which are governed by the World Triathlon.
Albina Lucy Charlotte Osipowich, later known by her married name Albina Van Aken, was an American competition swimmer for Pembroke Women's College, now Brown University, a 1928 Olympic champion, and a 1929 world record holder in the 100-meter freestyle. Osipowich won gold medals in the women's 100-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter freestyle relay at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, setting world records in both events. Though training less intensely in her Sophomore year at Pembroke, she helped lead the women's team to an undefeated regular season, and captained the team in her Junior Year. Removing herself from international competition, she declined to swim in national meets after her Freshman year at Pembroke, though continued to swim in regional meets.
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.
Samantha Arsenault, later known by her married name Samantha Livingstone, is an American former competition swimmer for the University of Georgia and a 2000 Sydney Olympic champion in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay where she helped set a new Olympic record. She would later teach high school science, coach swimming, and found Livingstone High Performance and the Whole Athlete Initiative (WAI) in 2016 to address mental health and organizational performance for youth.
Commercial Swimming Club is a swimming club that is based at the Fortitude Valley Pool in centre of Brisbane, Queensland. Club members have represented the country at the Olympic Games, FINA World Aquatics Championships and Commonwealth Games. Prominent club members have included Susie O'Neill, Cate and Bronte Campbell, Kieren Perkins and Libby Trickett.
Freestyle is a category of swimming competition, defined by the rules of World Aquatics, in which competitors are subject to only a few limited restrictions on their swimming stroke. Freestyle races are the most common of all swimming competitions, with distances beginning with 50 meters and reaching 1,500 meters, also known as the mile. The term 'freestyle stroke' is sometimes used as a synonym for 'front crawl', as front crawl is the fastest surface swimming stroke. It is now the most common stroke used in freestyle competitions.
Rose Pitonof Weene was a marathon swimmer from Dorchester, Massachusetts.
Eva Belle Morrison Abdou was a Boston hospital librarian, and a long-distance swimmer who made three attempts to cross the English Channel, but never succeeded. She was the first female from New England to attempt to swim the English Channel, making three attempts in 1926, 1935, and 1937. She was on the Board of Governors of The International Professional Swimmers' Association.
Charles B. Durborow was a record setting distance swimmer from Philadelphia. He was a member of the Philadelphia Athletic Club.
Lisa Larsen Rainsberger, previously known as Lisa Larsen Weidenbach, is a distance runner. She is a member of the University of Michigan Track and Field and Road Runners of America Halls of Fame. Her marathon times were among the top ten in the US in 1984 and 1987–1994. As of 2008, she was listed four times in the top 100 all-time US women's marathon performances, with a best time of 2:28:15.
Henry Elionsky, also known as Buster Elionsky, was a champion long-distance swimmer and handicap swimmer in open water swimming. Henry was sometimes mistakenly referred to as Harry Elionsky in news releases. Harry Elionsky was Henry's father.
Henry Francis Sullivan was an American marathon swimmer who is best known for becoming the third person and the first American to swim across the English Channel, beginning his swim on the afternoon of August 5, 1923, from Dover, England, and finishing 26 hours and 50 minutes later on the evening of August 6 at Calais, France.
Walter Poenisch was an American baker and long-distance swimmer. In 1963, at the age of 50, Poenisch began his professional swimming career by swimming in the Jim Moran Lake Michigan Swim, a 30-mile professional marathon swim in Lake Michigan.
The L Street Brownies are a polar bear club based in South Boston, Massachusetts. Organized in 1902, it is one of the oldest such clubs in the United States. Although the Brownies swim year round, they are best known for their annual New Year's Day plunge in Dorchester Bay.
William Leonard James Newell was a New Zealand swimmer who represented his country at the 1938 British Empire Games.
Matthew Richards is a British swimmer specialising in 100 and 200 metre freestyle, active internationally from 2020. He won the gold medal in the 200 metre freestyle at 2023 World Aquatics Championships, a silver in the 200 m freestyle at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Olympic gold in the 4 x 200 metre freestyle relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics and World gold in the same event at the 2023 World Championships.
Charles Durborow, the Philadelphia swimmer, who has to his credit the greatest feat of endurance in the water ever performed in America-48 miles across Delaware Bay in 14 hours and 15 minutes -- is willing to accept the statement of Samuel Richards of Boston that he is an amateur and wants to meet him in order to settle the question of national supremacy in distance swimming.