Channel Swimming
Members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team have made over forty Channel Crossings - the most by any athletic organisation. In this section of our website we present inspiring stories by our team members who have successfully crossed the channel, as well as tips for those thinking of taking on the challenge
- View list of swims by SCMT Members (up to 2009, if a swim is missing, pls. let us know!)
- Sri Chinmoy, SCMT Founder, passes away: read tributes from the sporting world on srichinmoy.org, including from Channel swimming legends Alison Streeter and Kevin Murphy
Inspiring Stories
- Vasanti Niemz was the first SCMT member to swim the English Channel in 1985. At the age of 50+, she started training for a Channel Triathlon, beginning in Dover, swimming the Channel and then cycling and running all the way to her native Heidelberg in Germany. Read Vasanti's triathlon blog about her first attempt in 2008 and the events of 2009/2010 with many useful links to other related websites.
- On September 8, 2007, one month before her teacher's Mahasamadhi, Vijaya Claxton (1948-2009) successfully completed her first English Channel crossing as the oldest U.S. woman (at 59) after 3 heroic attempts in the years before - an effort that earned her the Gertrude Ederle award in March 2008 for the most meritorious 2007 Channel Swim. Read more...
- Karteek Clarke has crossed the English Channel ten times by 2009, and is still training to increase that total. Read some of his inspiring stories here...
- Tejaswi Van Der Walt gives a very entertaining account of his Channel swim in 2000.
- Mate Szekely from Hungary successfully swam the English Channel in 2003 in 13 hours 5 minutes, you can read his tale here...
- Karteek and Mate versus the English Channel : a boat crew member's perspective by Devashishu Torpy
- In memoriam : Sunil William Davidson, a much loved SCMT member who swum the channel in 1988
- On Sept 30th, 2009, an international relay team of 4 female SCMT members from Czech Republic, Iceland and Germany swam from Dover to France in 13 hours 21 min., dedicating their relay swim to World Harmony and lighting the World Harmony torch on French sands. Read the story ... (see slide-show)
Media Coverage
Article about Karteek's 10th crossing of the English Channel on Aug. 13, 2009, in the online newspaper news.scotsman.com, Aug 20, 2009:
"AFTER completing a gruelling swim of the English Channel, he vowed to never put his body through the pain again.
But Edinburgh businessman Karteek Clarke just can't leave a challenge alone. He gave it another go – becoming the first Scot to attempt the crossing twice. Then he did it again, and again, and again.
Incredibly, the 42-year-old business training completed his tenth swim to France – and he puts his remarkable achievement down to meditation and yoga...." more
And another article about Karteek's 10th Channel swim in the Scottish Sun:
"PLUCKY Karteek Clarke has created waves by swimming the Channel TEN times - despite suffering severe SEA SICKNESS.
The 42-year-old admits he keeps vowing never to step foot in the water again but then can't resist another bash at the gruelling challenge.
He said: "Every time I've swum the Channel I've vowed, never again. It is exhausting. But then I get drawn in to complete the challenge just once more. This time it took me 16 hours and 49 minutes to cross from Dover to Calais - that's my longest time yet. Last year I did it in 14 hours and 54 minutes, but my best was under 11 hours. It depends so much on the sea, tides and weather conditions. I suffer from sea sickness so it takes a lot of discipline not to give up..." more
Other Resources
- News articles posted on this site...
- The 26km Zurich Lake swim run by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon team has become a famous training swim for the Channel and a very popular event in its own right, view details of the 26km swim or of the 12 hour swim held each February...
- Inspirational answers and aphorisms by Sri Chinmoy on the inner significance of swimming.
- A compiliation of training resources and useful infos for the big day by the Channel greats...
- When your arms get tired, you can't take the Chunnel - a very nice article on Alison Streeter, the legendary swimmer with the record of the most Channel crossings.
- Vasanti Niemz and Adiratha Keefe were the first two members of the SCMT to complete the channel crossing in 1985; Sri Chinmoy composed songs for both of them in his native Bengali in tribute to their achievements. Read the lyrics to Vasanti's and Adiratha's songs on srichinmoysongs.com...
- Useful links to other channel and swimming sites...
