Photo of trophy showing Top Female All Butterfly
here
There is an acknowledged title in the swimming world, that of the
Triple Crown ie. an elite group who have swam the English Channel (22
miles), Catalina Channel (22 miles) and Manhattan Island (28.5miles).
Swimmers do this on frontcrawl, yet only two swimmers in the world have
achieved two of the three on the proper traditional BUTTERFLY, Julie
being one and Vicki Keith (Canada).
Dr. 'Madfish' Bradshaw goes on to say:
“I have been asked if Catalina is next on the agenda” said Julie. “Who knows...it hadn’t crossed my mind! I know Vicki
has done both the Channel and Catalina though surprisingly, never had a
go at Manhattan in her great ‘fly’ days. She told me in an email when I
asked her ‘why’ that it was something she just had not done at the
time.”
Dr. Bradshaw is currently resting for a few days before her next big
one, The Humber, in the UK, again never been done and it will be her
next world record.
So what about the Manhattan swim? The day started well with calm
conditions at Pier A near Battery Park, New York. Julie was guided along
the way by a boat and a kayak going first along the East River, then
entering the Harlem River and finally the last tough 14 miles along The
Hudson.
The butterfly ‘swim tour’ took Dr. Julie Bradshaw MBE past historic
sights such as the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge,
Yankee Stadium and the awe inspiring sight of the huge George Washington
Bridge a few miles into the Hudson.
Here 'Madfish' goes on to describe what the conditions were like on the day
“One of the hardest parts of the swim was the heat; it was 75 degrees
at the coldest and even 80 degrees in some parts. The sun was beating
down onto my back and fortunately I covered myself in a high factor
suncream. It did a good job as I wasn’t anywhere near as ‘red’ and burnt
as I thought I would be,” Julie laughs. “There were strong currents
along the way although for the first part it was calm. However, when I
turned at the top with 14 miles to go, the wind blew up and I was
fighting against huge waves to get to the finish. It was such an amazing
moment to touch the finish buoy at the pier after 9 hours and 28
minutes in the water, finishing where I started out.”
This was the second time the ‘Madfish’ had attempted the swim.
Lightning halted her bid in 2005 when no swimmer finished the race. She
trained hard for the 2010/2011 year and came back and achieved her
dream. The race itself was an inaugural invitation event that NYC Swim
had put on in addition to the yearly solo race. Initially Julie had been
turned down for the solo due to a crew late entry in the online
application procedure. However, the organisers knew of Julie’s desire to
complete this on butterfly and to become the first 'documented' female
in the world to do so. The organisers had told her this in 2005. And
said they would organise a solo for her in the summer of 2011.
Julie continues...
“I was phoned at Christmas by the organiser who told me my ‘solo’ had
opened up a ‘can or worms’ and as a result they were putting on this
inaugural event and if it went well, it would run in future years. It
was great to think that this had come about from my conversation and
would mean many more swimmers could do this in future years avoiding the
disappointment of getting turned away due to insufficient places. My
friend, who was with me and had been listening into the call with me,
was as delighted as me!!
A few weeks further down the line everything was confirmed and I was set. My profile was added by the organisers to their website stating that whilst I was not the first person to have attempted it butterfly. Charles Chapman (Bio deleted from NYC Swim October 2012) - See Charles Chapman cached version here - had in the 1980’s but had resorted to other strokes to finish (deleted from NYC Newsletter October 2012) - see cached version here - as well (scroll down to NYC Swimmer Of The Week Julie Bradshaw) stating that he had used his own style of fly, (deleted from NYC Swim website october 2012) - see cached version here - thus a non-traditional butterfly.
Whilst there had been reports of other swimmers circumnavigating the
island on butterfly (1983. 1986 – reports incidentally revealed by the
organisers after Sat 16th July), no one had swam faster than
Julie, and certainly no ‘documented’ traditional style butterfly. The
organisers claim that this was due to all strokes being categorised in
those days as freestyle. Yet my butterfly English Channel swim and Vicki
Keith’s butterfly swim of the Channel and Catalina Straits in the USA
were put down in the books as butterfly and recognised.
In completing the swim then and from email updates sent out to their membership, I would be the first female and hence first person (swimmer) ever
to have swam the entire 28.5 mile course using only traditional
butterfly. This would be a record, a world first* and indeed,
'documented'.
To be certain, as I like to be certain of my facts, I did ask about
this. The current organisers had been responsible for the running
of this swim sevent (MIMS) since 1993. Despite weeks of enquiring and
prior to my swim they could not find any documentation saying that
Chapman had done it. Even the guy who went on his boat was not supposed
to have remembered what transpired. That is hard to believe - I am glad
my observer (allocated by NYC) (Hsi-Ling) on Saturday July 16th knew!! Doing something like butterfly the whole way IS an occasion that cannot be forgotten.
You can imagine my elation therefore, when I touched that buoy at
the end. The crowd clapped and applauded my huge effort. I had done it
and completed another ‘page’ in my life.”
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