In May 2022, the Serpentine Swimming Club was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame – IMSHOF in short.
This is a huge honour bestowed on the club, or as marathon swimming legend Nick Adams put it, upon the members of the club that have marathon swimming achievements under their belts. And there are many of them.
One Saturday morning following the club’s induction to IMSHOF in Naples, Italy, all the club’s marathon swimmers who could make it, came together to be photographed by Anthony Wood, a fellow Serpentine Club Swimmer who’s been photographing life at the club for the past few years, as documented in his Instagram feed @coldwatermornings. Anthony does freelance camerawork, with CBS News as his main client, and I was privileged to do the sound recording for this podcast that morning, under his tutelage.
By sound, I mean interviews with some of the many – Nick Adams, John Coningham-Rolls, Neil Drinkwater, Robert Fischer, Tom Elliott, Gerald Power-athome, Club President Rob Ouldcott, Judith Charman, Mark Johanssen, James Lythe, James Norton, and the legendary Rosemary George.
Marathon swimming defined here as 10 kilometers or more, takes, time, persistence, determination and of course - support.
James Norton mentions three that supported him; Volker Koch, Alan Mitchell and Kevin Blick, all marathon swimmers themselves giving up their time to play a modest role in another marathon swimmer’s challenge. ‘Teamwork makes the dream work’ – trite but true.
This podcast catches the exuberance of the morning’s celebration with many of the clubs’ marathon swimmers as they assembled by the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, London.
Listen to the podcast here
Images at the serpentine Swimming Club by Anthony Wood