Timeline Of Events & Communications - The Butterfly Record
And now you as the reader will be able to
hear all about the Time Line of events leading up to the swim and for months
after. By expanding upon her story Dr. Julie ‘Madfish’ Bradshaw MBE wants YOU to
read and digest and thus formulate your OWN thoughts and opinions:
JULY 2005:
“I had first attempted to swim Manhattan
Island in 2005 on butterfly. This swim is organised by NYC Swim and has been
for many years. In 2005 I was told by the organisation that I would be the
first female to circumnavigate the island on butterfly and that a Black
American, Charles Chapman had already swam it on butterfly in 1988 or 1989. I
was happy to be the first woman and in any case would be the first British
person to achieve such a feat.
However, that year a freak lightning storm
halted the event and after 6 hours in the water, I was ordered out – no one
finished the swim that year.
I thus came back and decided in 2010 that I
wanted to have a go at it again. The enrolment procedure was to take place in
November and it certainly is ‘cut throat’ and a ‘brutal’ process. Many swimmers
all around the world go online on ‘D-Day’ and complete their application as
quickly as possible. Spaces are limited and are first come, first served. All was prepared and I had filled in many of
the required forms such as the medical and more.
OCTOBER
17th 2010:
I emailed the organiser to inform them that
I was wishing to swim Manhattan and again attempt it on butterfly. Amongst
various questions was the one about confirmation of being the first woman to
swim it butterfly. The response I got was in line with what I had been told in
2005 – that Charles Chapman had already swam it butterfly in 1988/89 and to
quote, they hoped ‘this wouldn’t discourage me from making my attempt’.
NOVEMBER 2010:
The ‘day of enrolment’ came and thus the
race against time and others started. So many swimmers have been disappointed
in the past getting turned down as others had more complete registration. I
thought I had it all to hand.
The NYC ‘Rules and Policies’ are part of
the enrolment, but to be honest which swimmer ever reads them as this delay to
fully read them could mean the difference between a slot to get in or miss
out!! So, along with the many others the box is ticked to say the waiver has
been read. I challenge any swimmer to say honestly they have read and
understood the NYC Policies and Procedures and had the time, especially when
English is not their first language!
All sections were completed and I just had
to wait for my crew to sign in. I can certainly say that this procedure is very
stressful. I finally got my last crew to sign the forms online although because
they were abroad, this resulted in them completing this only a few hours too
late. One second was too late – and I duly got an email saying that I had not
been accepted. I was mortified to say the least.
Fortunately, I managed to speak with the
main organiser. We spoke at length and he agreed that he would look into the
possibility of doing what he termed a ‘quiet swim’ in other words a solo, which
would suit me.
DECEMBER 2010
The organiser phoned me and basically said
that in me asking for a solo swim, it had opened up a ‘can of worms’ Put
simply, many swimmers do not get in due to the brutal process of only accepting
a certain number of swimmers. The great
news (the can of worms!) was that NYC were going to trial an event ie. they
would put on an invitational relay event which would free up more places for
solo swimmers in the future if the inaugural event were successful.
Wow! I was delighted to be part of this and
in some way responsible for this move forward which would if successful, form a
main event in the future. Up to now, solos and relays were mixed- having a
separate event for each would be wonderful...and so I had to wait for
confirmation of a date. As I could not do the original solo date, the organiser
honoured my wish, (request in an email on January 15th 2011) and
said it was good to do it with the relays.
He had emailed me on 2nd December saying the date they would
like to go for was 16th July.
JANUARY 21st 2011
I received an email: ‘Friends of NYC Swim’
letting me know that I had been accepted for the new event on July 16th
2011– Manhattan Island Relays + 1. For those of you wondering the +1 referred
to me, the solo butterfly swimmer!!
JANUARY 31ST 2011
This is where it began to be confusing for
me as there was conflicting evidence seen on the NYC website and I duly emailed
the organiser and to quote:
‘I visited the NYC site tonight for the race list.
I clicked on my name and
saw that Charles Chapman had tried to do it 'fly' but finished on other
strokes. Before you and X told me he had done it the whole way. Could
you clarify that no person, male or female has done MIMS the whole way on
butterfly. I am a bit confused!!’
You can imagine how confused I was and just
needed to know the truth, especially as my swims can generate much media
interest. I would undoubtedly be asked if someone had completed the swim on
butterfly or not.
FEBRUARY 14TH 2011
Still nothing definite known though I was
told that someone was looking into this
FEBRUARY 22ND 2011
Finally I heard back with an email from NYC saying:
‘Thanks
for your patience while we checked with officials from the organization that
preceded NYC Swim. We can confirm that Charles Chapman circled Manhattan twice
(9:25 in 1988, 9:35 in 1989), but the details of whether he swam legal
butterfly the whole way are fuzzy.
Our
advice to you is to aim for a finish time faster than 9:25. You will definitely
be the first woman to swim butterfly, and with that time you’d have the record
(male or female).’
Not really the answer I was hoping for. I
wished to know for definite and could not understand why no one knew or even
remember an event such as this. I can say that my observer Hsi-Ling will
remember my butterfly swim which she has already recorded on You Tube and on
her Facebook.
APRIL 5TH 2011
One of my friends offered to help with the PR
for the event and she sent a courteous email to NYC asking them that she wished
to be sure of her facts before the press release we were to hold. Like me, she
again asked them for clarification since the media would ask the question.
The reply she received was not the most
helpful and very simply said that any PR needed to come through them and be
approved beforehand (NYC rules and policies) and if this wasn’t done then they
would not let me swim. We did apologize since we had not intended to go against
what NYC had written and duly my friend emailed the press release which
eventually received NYC approval.
What did come out of it was yet more
confusion and contradiction. It is easier to quote and let you make up your own
mind:
‘Julie may not claim to be the first person to swim around the island
butterfly.
She may claim to be the first “documented” woman to attempt swim
butterfly around the island.
If she swims faster than Mr Chapman around the island, she can claim to
be the fastest person to swim butterfly around the island.’
Since I was also raising
money for Rainbows Children’s Hospice, I apparently had to join to their
fundraising scheme which in part kept a portion of any money raised and it
would go to the NYC charity Swim Free. Again, this is in their rules and
policies, and unknowingly and unintentionally I had fallen as they put it
‘foul’ of their rules again. I told them I would link to it – anything to be
able to swim. I had trained so hard and it was a dream of mine to swim it on
butterfly and complete what I had set out to do in 2005, when lightning stopped
play!
More communications from
NYC were to follow all seemingly trying to state the same, yet in essence were
different in content with words changing and ‘goalposts’ moving. I had to
conform else I wouldn’t be allowed to swim. And here are more contradictions:
APRIL 6TH 2011
‘Regarding claims…this is
not a record attempt and will not be recognized as such by our organization and
the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. Any attempt to do so, will be
actively and aggressively rebuked.
You may claim, if you are
successful, and this is very nuanced, that your swim will be the fastest
“documented” butterfly swim by a woman. Since the record-keeping by the
predecessor organizations was poor, no record can be claimed in any form…’
APRIL 7TH 2011
I was then further told
that they would not be expanding their record listings for additional
categories at this time and that they did not plan to do so in the future; and
to be clear,
this “document” attempt by
me to go around the island would not be recognized as a record by the IMSOF,
since NYC Swim would not recognize it as a record. If successful, it would be
the first NYC Swim and the first since 1993, organized and “documented”
butterfly circumnavigation of Manhattan by a woman. Would it be the first since
the beginning of time? That NYC couldn’t state as an absolute fact, that it
probably would be, but again NYC was not 100% sure.
I decided to get on with
the training and see what the next few months would bring. In mine and other
people’s eyes my butterfly swim would be a record, a personal record and a
dream to compete it. Nevertheless I do
consider it to be a record and this is explained in THE ‘RECORD’ section of
this website
JUNE 22nd 2011
Every so often NYC send out
updates and email letters to their swimmers and their swimming community. I
opened it and to my surprise the update now said that I would be the first woman to do it butterfly and that I was attempting a course record in
the butterfly stroke. Here it is:NYC Swim Manhattan Island Butterfly Course Record
