An Australian swimmer, Chloe McCardel, is in cloud nine to achieve the record-breaking 35th channel crossing, which is above the men’s record of 34. A total of 10 hours and 40 minutes paid off her other world records for endurance swimming.
She left behind the trails of Abbot’s Cliff beach near Folkestone on 15th August, and the next morning, she surpassed the British athlete Kevin Murphy, who held the men’s record of 34. McCardel has been in ‘great spirits’ after moving to ‘second spot on the list of most Channel crossings.’ The 35-year-old Australian endurance swimmer also pointed out the prevalence of domestic violence on women amidst the lockdown restriction. She dedicated her record-breaking honors as strength and voice to the victims of a domestic altercation.
“It’s a very momentous occasion and I’m very proud to be able to represent Australia. I’ve also been thinking a lot about the people in lockdown, particularly women facing domestic violence, and I’m proud to be able to be a voice for those who don’t have one.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD1zHEUDQh4/
Initially, she didn’t know how to swim. During the class trip to the local pool, she was one of the students who were unfamiliar with swimming ticks. However, the embarrassing moment triggered 6th grades McCardel to learn swimming. She didn’t yearn to be left out by her swimmer mates.
“I was so embarrassed … I just wanted to learn the skill which all my friends could do, Then when I was like 19 or 20 I just decided I wanted to be the best in the world at something … then I found marathon swimming and that really drove me.”
In July, she hopped in excitement when the Australian government qualified her exemption from travel restriction despite the COVID-19 menace. Consequently, she added four English Channel crossings to her swimming testimonials.
“I was euphoric, jumping around my house, giving high fives, it is this huge, huge burden off my shoulders, It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to represent Australia when so many people can’t travel overseas, people have loved ones they’re trying to connect with or other very valid reasons and not everyone is getting an exemption, so I feel very privileged.”
She was on tenterhooks whether the government could impose local restrictions where she could swim without any boat execution. It could result in her in the state of hypothermia if no boats could leave for the rescue. She was also worried about the possibility of bad weather and the severity of waves. At the end of the day, she became the second person in history to reach 35 channel swims.
Though she is briefly leaving swimming trials because of muscle soreness, she is still aiming for the record of Alison Streeter, who has 43.
Her husband, Paul McQueeney, isn’t stranger to her guts. He is well-acknowledged how she attained her record-breaking swim in the Bahamas with a puffy face due to the jellyfish invasion in 2014. She withdrew from the world record attempt in 2013 when hoards of jellyfish wrapped their tentacles on her bare limbs. Though beaten by jellyfish, the marathon swimmer and her husband looked for alternative swimming channels where she could swim for 108 km spontaneously and mark the record.
Paul McQueeney, whom she met during the training of the English Channel in 2009, must have felt for courage. No sharks, jellyfish, or heat stroke could halt Chloe McCardel from smashing a world record.
“gutsiest effort I’ve ever seen in my life”.
“She fought through and got to 126km … unbelievable swim,”
McQueeney praised her as she swam 126km in 42.5 hours in the open water of Bahamas without even a shark net.
