Captain Webb and the Olympics

The Olympic 10K Marathon Swims will be held on August 20th (women) and August 21st (men) in Beijing. Almost exactly 133 years ago to the day, Captain Webb became the first person to successfully swim across the English Channel. Just as Captain Webb first created a curiosity about channel swimming, the Olympic 10K swimmers may initiate another stir about open water swimming.

But unlike Captain Webb who swam the entire English Channel solo doing breaststroke (in 21 hours and 45 minutes), the Olympic 10K Marathon Swimmers will be going extremely fast freestyle in front of a worldwide audience.