Future Olympic Hopefuls Master Swim Around the Rock
Challenging 4 mile against-the-currents route takes swimmers from San Francisco to Alcatraz and back again.
SAN FRANCISCO—August 16, 2016—Water World Swim, the universal expert on open water swimming, today announced the results of the 11th annual “Swim Around the Rock,” a grueling endurance swim from the shoreline of San Francisco out to and around the historic United States Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island before returning back to the city by the Bay. Jackson Miller, a wetsuit swimmer from Walnut Creek, Calif., took first place out of 33 swimmers in a time of 1:25:22. Miller is a senior at Indiana University and competed at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials in the 400 free. Tom McCleary of Los Gatos, Calif. (+24:08), was the first skin swimmer to complete the course. Full results are available online here, along with photos from the event, courtesy of Vivek Khanzode.
In a change from previous years, the August 14, 2016 course started at 7:30am on the beach of St. Francis Yacht Club. On a iconically foggy summer morning, swimmers enjoyed a 2.0 flood to carry them out to the rock before making the turn and battling the currents and legendary San Francisco Bay chop all the way home. Water temperatures measured 61.3F degrees and air temperatures stayed cool at 57 degrees. Winds stayed steady throughout the race around 15MPH.
“This race is notorious for being the most challenging swim in the Bay, and the conditions we experienced made the course magnified the typical degree of difficulty,” said Pedro Ordenes, head coach and co-founder of Water World Swim. “I have been swimming in this Bay for many, many years, and these athletes showed me why they are the best in the world by completing this race with extreme finesse.”
The youngest competitor in the 2016 Swim Around the Rock with Water World Swim is 15-year-old Mitali Khanzode from Sunnyvale, Calif. M. Khanzode, who suffered from a congenital heart defect as a child, previously held the world record as the youngest girl to complete the Golden Gate Bridge Swim.
The 2017 Swim Around the Rock is tentatively slated for July 2, 2017 and will once again take athletes on the longer course with the start at St. Francis Yacht Club and finish at Aquatic Park in San Francisco. Registration will be available in the coming days. Note that all first time swimmers must submit an application due to the intense physical demands of this race. The full 2017 Water World Swim racing schedule was recently announced with early registration discounts available on many of the races available until January 1, 2017.
Water World Swim provides a safe, guided and fun environment for swimmers of all levels to uncover a lifelong and life-affirming love for the planet’s most exotic natural pools. From weekly swims in local waters to international expeditions, Water World Swim unites the world through swimming. For more information, please visit www.waterworldswim.com.
About Water World Swim
Water World Swim is the universal expert on open water swimming. With nearly 30 years’ experience tackling the biggest aquatic challenges on Earth, Water World Swim has helped unite the world through swimming by successfully guiding excursions across the San Francisco Bay, English Channel, the Strait of Magellan, the Bonifacio Channel and more. Lead by Head Coach Pedro Ordenes, who has completed more than than 900 Alcatraz crossings, Water World Swim provides a safe, guided, and fun environment for swimmers of all levels to uncover a lifelong and life-affirming love for the planet’s most exotic natural pools. For more information, please visit www.waterworldswim.com
Media Contact
Andrea Vuturo
andrea@waterworldswim.com