Ten Years Around The World Started With A Dream By Vanessa Garcia
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
The Maratón Acuática Internacional Santa Fe – Coronda is a 57 km professional marathon swim down the Coronda River in Argentina. The Santa Fe-Coronda is, without a doubt outside of the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim, the most viewed marathon swim in the world with hundreds of thousands of spectators on boats and bridges, at the start and finish, and at the race ceremonies and on television.
Vanesa Garcia is a local, born in Santa Fe in 1984. “From a very young age, I used to go see the most beautiful marathon swim in the world. My love of the open water was born due to the race. My big dream was to swim the Maratón Acuática Internacional Santa Fe – Coronda and to be able to compete on the entire professional marathon swimming world circuit.
Many years have passed and I have been able to fulfill my lifelong dreams.”
Garcia has competed in many of the world’s top professional marathon swims, 53 all together since 2008, including:
- 10 editions of the Santa Fe-Coronda marathon, with a best time of 9 hours 30 minutes over the 57 km course
- 9 editions of the Maratona del Golfo Capri-Napoli in Italy, with a best time of 7 hours 36 minutes over the 36 km course
- 9 editions of the Traversée internationale du lac St-Jean in Canada with a best time of 8 hours 53 minutes over the 32 km course
- 33 km Ohrid Lake Swim Marathon in Macedonia
- 15 km Maratón Acuática Internactional Ciudad de Rosario in Argentina
- 15 km Copa del Mundo FINA Maraton de Natacion Cañon del Sumidero in Mexico
- 4 editions of the 88 km Maratón Acuática Hernandarias-Paraná in the Río Paraná in Argentina with a best time of 11 hours over the 88 km course
Raised in the warm waters of Argentina, Garcia was developed and coached Raúl Strnad for a full decade. Her best ranking was when she rose to #4 in the world rankings for two years. She recalls, “I have competed on the FINA UltraMarathon Swim Series for 10 years. I want to thank my coach with whom I started on the professional marathon swimming circuit, Strnad. He has provided me with a great fundamental tool to compete in the open water: my mental strength.”
Garcia is now working with International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honor Swimmer Esther Núñez Morena from Spain who lives in Argentina and will help her prepare for the upcoming Ohrid Lake Swim Marathon and the Maratona del Golfo Capri-Napoli races.
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