California Swimming

California has been the training grounds to numerous great open water swimmers over the past 40 years: long-time English Channel record holder, Dr. Penny Lee Dean, world renowned Lynne Cox, the dominant professional marathon swimmer of the 1980s, Paul Asmuth, world champion Chad Hundeby, Olympic 10K marathon swimmers Mark Warkentin and Chloe Sutton and NCAA champion and masters pool and open water swimming legend Jim McConica, life guard legend hero and Olympic commentator Craig Hummer, and local ocean swimming champions Alex Kostich, Gerry Rodrigues, Lisa Hazen and Diane Graner.

Many of these individuals - and hundreds of thousands of others - have honed their skills at the local ocean races up and down the long coast of California, from La Jolla near San Diego to Aquatic Park in San Francisco Bay, as well as the numerous lakes and rivers throughout the state.

For a great open water swimming website with lots of photos from California open water swimming events, go to H2O Sports Photos.

Note: Californians have held the English Channel record for at least 26 years out of the past 36.