Northwestern University Athletics
NU Alum Completes English Channel Swim, Open Water Triple Crown
8/27/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
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By Kalyn Kahler
EVANSTON, Ill. -- At dawn on July 21, Former Northwestern swimmer Daniel Robinson ('79) pulled himself up onto the boat off the coast of France, and completed a dream that was 40 years in the making.
Robinson, 56, first thought of swimming the English Channel when he was a teenager, but didn't seriously begin to train for the 21-mile swim until 11 years ago, when a conversation with a fellow open-water swimmer, Scott Lautman, convinced him that he wasn't too old to achieve the feat of endurance.
Robinson trained for the Channel swim by completing two other marathons, the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, a 28.5 mile circumnavigation around Manhattan Island, and the Catalina Channel swim, a 20.1 mile swim between Catalina Island and mainland California. Robinson swam the MIMS in 2006 and Catalina in 2008.
The Seattle resident entered the record books with his completion of the English Channel swim, becoming the 96th person to complete the three marathon swims, known as the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, and joined the Half Century Club- a group of swimmers at least 50 years old who have completed a marathon swim.
"At 56 years old, Scott was right, I wasn't too old," Robinson said. "Completing the Marathon swimming Triple Crown was a byproduct of my preparation for my English Channel swim. The MIMS and Catalina swims taught me how to train for a long swim and they gave me the confidence to swim the Channel."
Robinson began his 11 hour and 59 minute swim of the English Channel at 4 p.m. on July 20 with his boat pilot Mike Oram and his wife and kids alongside him. Just two hours into the swim, Robinson's body throbbed with pain and he wasn't sure he'd be able to achieve his dream on the first attempt.
"My throat ached, my back was aching and my left shoulder was hurting," he said. "At that point, I wondered if I could keep going for another 10 or 12 hours. I never mentioned this to my crew, wife and kids or Mike. I decided it would be too embarrassing to stop after two or three hours."
Robinson swam on through the pain and eventually found a smooth rhythm. In the middle of his swim, he was stung by a few jellyfish, and the stings actually distracted Robinson from the soreness in his back and arms.
During the final lengths of his swim, Robinson passed by three different French cities. The glowing lights of the cities gave him motivation to continue.
"The city lights gave me the feeling that I could finish the swim," he said.
Although Robinson's last mile was the hardest, "It was the longest mile," he said, "I must have taken an hour to swim the last mile," he pushed through the choppy water and emerged from the Channel as a Triple Crowner.
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