Awards in the OWS World
Whenever you say you are an Open Water Swimmer – let alone an Ice Swimmer – people look at you with a deep sense of disbelief and concern. Even other pool swimmers usually ask the ubiquitous and unanswerable question: Why on Earth would you do that? The funny part is that there are no meaningful awards – monetary or otherwise – to be attained. The three most sought after feats (Triple Crown, Oceans Seven and Ice Mile) in both sports hold no physical recognition. In my trophy corner at home, the prize for winning a 2.4-mile race in Turks & Caicos is way bigger and nicer than my English Channel printed certificate. And I can assure you the latter was more painful and expensive than the former. A very expensive, Bruger King crown Perhaps to compensate this lack of incentive, the two organizations regulating OWS globally, namely the World Open Water Swimming Association (“WOWSA”) and the Marathon Swimmers Federation (“MSF”) started offering annual awards in 2008 and...