Untraditional backstroke

Remember the drill with the dolphin kicks and backstroke pull? Well, this guy here does it really well. World-record-breakingly well. Yup, that's right. He competes that way. It's amazing to watch.

Here he is breaking the SCM 200 back world record for his age group. Oh, yeah, he broke the 100m and 50m world records too.



For more on Chris Stevenson's accomplishments, check out Swimming World Magazine.

Successful Crossing of the Strait of Magellan!

Wow.

Really…wow.

On January 21, 2009, our very own (and by that I mean former Vanderbilt Y regular), Cristian Vergara and Rachel Golub (who has jumped in the pool with us before and is known by many on the team), along with Mark and Scott Lautman, successfully crossed the Strait of Magellan.

For a brief geography review, the strait is "immediately south of mainland Chile and north of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego.” I’ll let Wikipedia do the rest of the explaining here.

The waters are frigid, to say the least (40 degrees on the day of the swim) and the conditions not always the friendliest (according to Rachel’s blog, there are treacherous winds that can pick people up out of the water!). Yet, these brave swimmers trained long and hard to prepare themselves for this challenge. And, with the help of a useful sponsor, a little press, and a lot of support from friends, some of whom accompanied them to Chile, they all crossed the strait in under 2 hours.

Congratulations to all of the swimmers on your amazing accomplishment!

You can follow Rachel’s account of the swim on her blog: Magellaniana
And, here’s a story on Rachel and Cristian’s training regimen at Brighton Beach: NYTimes
Patricia Sener also plans to post pictures on her blog: Salty Tales
Y para los que leen español: La Prensa Austral

(Picture credit: La Prensa Austral)