Great challenges are nothing new to English Channel swimmers, but opportunities to put things back into sport, to encourage people to push themselves to new challenges and new limits, to promote healthy activity, to encourage young people to be more active, to demonstrate that sport can be fun, to make and further new friendships with people from other nations, these are challenges too good to resist.
It was therefore with great pleasure that the Channel Swimming Association Ltd. accepted this opportunity to help to promote the "Dialogue Across the Seas" project and sport generally between the USA, Europe and North Africa.
This year the project has raised the money, support and the organization to be able to invite a team of four of the fastest CSA Channel swimmers and their coaches to take part in a 20Km challenge swim from the island of Kerkennah to mainland Sfax in Tunisia. Competing against this team will be a group of Tunisian National swimmers. The CSA team invited to Tunisia includes Mallory Mead of the United States, and formerly of Plymouth, the fastest CSA female Channel swimmer in 2008.
The project aims, through the competition and some show piece events to introduce, encourage, stimulate and promote long distance swimming to young people in Tunisia and to give swimmers of all abilities the opportunity to meet, compete and share in the experiences of a small group of successful English Channel swimmers. In due course it is planned to extend the project to the other Magreb countries of Libya and Algeria.
Other swimmers include Miguel Arrobas of Portugal, the fastest CSA male Channel swimmer in 2008, Christopher Sheppard of Great Britain the fastest CSA British Channel swimmer in 2008 and Jane McCormick of Scotland, led by King of the Channel and CSA President, Michael Read.
In the 134 years since the English Channel was first successfully crossed, there have only been 734 people who have had their swim verified and ratified by the Channel Swimming Association Ltd.