Chloë McCardel Sets Record Swimming Non-Stop In The Spa
Chloë McCardel Sets Record Swimming Non-Stop In The Spa
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.After watching only snippets of Chloë McCardel swim 16 hours live online, we had myriad questions to ask the Australian star.
Daily News of Open Water Swimming: How many times did you go to the bathroom?
Chloë McCardel: I went to the bathroom on 5 occasions.
Daily News of Open Water Swimming: How long were you out of the water?
Chloë McCardel: In sequential order the minutes taken were 6 minutes, 4 minutes, 8 minutes, 7 minutes and 6 minutes.
Daily News of Open Water Swimming: What was your stroke count on average?
Chloë McCardel: As an estimate between 55 – 60 spm, although it did vary throughout the swim. For example at times (maybe 5% of the time) I was doing breaststroke with a dolphin kick or front scull. I would have done backstroke too, but this wasn’t easy with a tether on.
Daily News of Open Water Swimming: Did you listen to music at all?
Chloë McCardel: No. I didn’t wear any earphones or other devices with audio capacity, nor were there speakers in the spa. There was other music playing at the expo, but I was not aware of it when I was swimming in the spa.
Daily News of Open Water Swimming: Did your coach/husband communicate with her using a whiteboard or just talking?
Chloë McCardel: My husband, Paul, stayed from 12 am midnight until 1 am and then 7 am – 4 pm. The hours in between, Matthew, the son of the Event Organiser looked after me. After 5 years of supporting my marathons, Paul knows my body language very well. After he asks me something he often knows my response within seconds without any words from myself. Paul spoke to Matthew before he left and Matthew did a great job when he was in charge between 1 pm – 7 am.
And…one of the wonderful things about this record is that I was able to share so much of it with family, friends, expo attendees and online with supporters across the world. For example, in the English Channel when I finish my crossings there is no one on shore and only a small handful of support crew to share it with. Although I use GPS-tracking technology on my ultra-marathons, I have never had the opportunity to share a live feed with video and audio before. It was fantastic. My crew even read out some of the amazing comments supporters had left on my Facebook Marathon Page.
I am coaching a few 2014 English Channel Relay Teams and my Melbourne-based team came down to cheer me on which was very special. It was also very moving to have young children spend up to an hour and a half waiting by the spa side for me to finish.
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Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.
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