Global Open Water Swimming Conference
Encyclopedia
Global Open Water Swimming Conference is a conference
on the sport of open water swimming
, marathon swimming
and swimming during triathlon
s and multi-sport endurance events. Speakers at the conference include English Channel
world record holders, renowned coaches, world open water swimming
champions, professional marathon swimmers, renowned coaches, race directors, officials and administrators from the Africa
, Americas
, Asia
, Europe
and Oceania
. The conference is devoted to providing information about the latest trends, race tactics, training techniques, equipment, psychological preparation, race organization and safety practices used in the sports of open water swimming
, marathon swimming
and triathlons.
The Global Open Water Swimming Conference was started due to the desire and need for athletes, coaches, referees, administrators, promoters and sponsors from around the world to share, collect and learn information
about the growing sports of open water swimming
, marathon swimming
and triathlons. The conference offers four central themes: Training
, Business
, Racing
and Lifestyle with each presentation geared towards providing different perspectives on these themes.
After the inclusion of marathon swimming
in the 2008 Beijing
Olympics and its announced return at the 2012 London
Olympics in Hyde Park
and at the 2016 Rio
Olympics at Copacabana Beach, there was a growing need for sharing information between race directors, athletes, coaches, administrators and referees. Those who give presentations include Greta Andersen
, Shelley Taylor-Smith
, Dan Empfield
, Sid Cassidy and Ram Barkai. Race directors from the Great Swim
in Great Britain
, Cadiz Freedom Swim
in South Africa
, Flowers Sea Swim in the Cayman Islands
, Waikiki Roughwater Swim in Hawaii
, Clean Half Extreme Swim in Hong Kong
and Catalina Channel Swimming Federation and swimmers who have successfully swum the English Channel
, Catalina Channel, Cook Strait
, Tsugaru Strait
, Strait of Gibraltar
, Molokai Channel and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim provide unique perspectives on their chosen sport.
At the Global Open Water Swimming Conference, awards are presented to the World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year, the World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year, the World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year. Special Lifetime Achievement Awards are also presented to individuals who have made significant contributions to the sport over their lifetime.
and will be held in New York City and London over the next two years.
The conference's mission statement is to provide opportunities to listen and meet many of the world's most foremost experts in open water swimming
. Dozens of presentations cover every aspect of the vast and growing world of open water swimming
where attendees can learn the latest trends, race tactics, training techniques, equipment, race organization and safety practices for open water swimming
as a solo swimmer, competitive athlete, masters swimmer, triathlete, multi-sport athlete, administrator, race promoter or referee
.
Meeting
In a meeting, two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal setting.- Definitions :An act or process of coming together as an assembly for a common purpose....
on the sport of open water swimming
Open water swimming
Open water swimming takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, bays, lakes, rivers, canals, and reservoirs.The beginning of the modern age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when Lord Byron swam several miles to cross the Hellespont from Europe to Asia.In...
, marathon swimming
Marathon swimming
Marathon swimming, or ultra-long-distance swimming, is a class of open water swimming. Unlike the use of the term for foot-races where the distance is well-defined, the distance of a marathon swim varies from event to event. Tides, surface currents and wind-chop are major determinants of...
and swimming during triathlon
Triathlon
A triathlon is a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events. While many variations of the sport exist, triathlon, in its most popular form, involves swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances...
s and multi-sport endurance events. Speakers at the conference include English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
world record holders, renowned coaches, world open water swimming
Open water swimming
Open water swimming takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, bays, lakes, rivers, canals, and reservoirs.The beginning of the modern age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when Lord Byron swam several miles to cross the Hellespont from Europe to Asia.In...
champions, professional marathon swimmers, renowned coaches, race directors, officials and administrators from the Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
. The conference is devoted to providing information about the latest trends, race tactics, training techniques, equipment, psychological preparation, race organization and safety practices used in the sports of open water swimming
Open water swimming
Open water swimming takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, bays, lakes, rivers, canals, and reservoirs.The beginning of the modern age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when Lord Byron swam several miles to cross the Hellespont from Europe to Asia.In...
, marathon swimming
Marathon swimming
Marathon swimming, or ultra-long-distance swimming, is a class of open water swimming. Unlike the use of the term for foot-races where the distance is well-defined, the distance of a marathon swim varies from event to event. Tides, surface currents and wind-chop are major determinants of...
and triathlons.
The Global Open Water Swimming Conference was started due to the desire and need for athletes, coaches, referees, administrators, promoters and sponsors from around the world to share, collect and learn information
Information
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
about the growing sports of open water swimming
Open water swimming
Open water swimming takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, bays, lakes, rivers, canals, and reservoirs.The beginning of the modern age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when Lord Byron swam several miles to cross the Hellespont from Europe to Asia.In...
, marathon swimming
Marathon swimming
Marathon swimming, or ultra-long-distance swimming, is a class of open water swimming. Unlike the use of the term for foot-races where the distance is well-defined, the distance of a marathon swim varies from event to event. Tides, surface currents and wind-chop are major determinants of...
and triathlons. The conference offers four central themes: Training
Training
The term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at institutes of...
, Business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
, Racing
Racing
A sport race is a competition of speed, against an objective criterion, usually a clock or to a specific point. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time...
and Lifestyle with each presentation geared towards providing different perspectives on these themes.
After the inclusion of marathon swimming
Marathon swimming
Marathon swimming, or ultra-long-distance swimming, is a class of open water swimming. Unlike the use of the term for foot-races where the distance is well-defined, the distance of a marathon swim varies from event to event. Tides, surface currents and wind-chop are major determinants of...
in the 2008 Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
Olympics and its announced return at the 2012 London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
Olympics in Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
and at the 2016 Rio
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
Olympics at Copacabana Beach, there was a growing need for sharing information between race directors, athletes, coaches, administrators and referees. Those who give presentations include Greta Andersen
Greta Andersen
Greta Andersen is a Danish swimmer and Olympic champion, later settled in Long Beach, California. She competed at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, where she received a gold medal in 100 m freestyle, and a silver medal in 4 × 100 m freestyle relay.-Channel swimmer:Greta Andersen set the women's...
, Shelley Taylor-Smith
Shelley Taylor-Smith
Shelley Taylor-Smith is a former Australian long-distance swimmer.Born in Perth, Western Australia, Taylor-Smith suffered from scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine, throughout her school years. The condition required her to wear a back brace, although she was successful in national age...
, Dan Empfield
Dan Empfield
Dan Empfield is an entrepreneur in the world of multisport, inventor of the 'triathlon wetsuit' in 1987, and the "tri-specific racing bike" in 1989. The original designs were manufactured by the Quintana Roo company, which he founded in 1987....
, Sid Cassidy and Ram Barkai. Race directors from the Great Swim
Great Swim
Billed as "the UK's biggest mass participation open water swimming series", the Great Swim was started in 2008 with a one mile Great North Swim in Windermere...
in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, Cadiz Freedom Swim
Cadiz Freedom Swim
The Cadiz Freedom Swim is an extreme open water swimming race from Robben Island to Big Bay, Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa.It takes place annually close to Freedom Day .The Cadiz Freedom...
in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Flowers Sea Swim in the Cayman Islands
Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica...
, Waikiki Roughwater Swim in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, Clean Half Extreme Swim in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and Catalina Channel Swimming Federation and swimmers who have successfully swum the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
, Catalina Channel, Cook Strait
Cook Strait
Cook Strait is the strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It connects the Tasman Sea on the west with the South Pacific Ocean on the east....
, Tsugaru Strait
Tsugaru Strait
is a channel between Honshu and Hokkaido in northern Japan connecting the Sea of Japan with the Pacific Ocean. It was named after the western part of Aomori Prefecture...
, Strait of Gibraltar
Strait of Gibraltar
The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Spain in Europe from Morocco in Africa. The name comes from Gibraltar, which in turn originates from the Arabic Jebel Tariq , albeit the Arab name for the Strait is Bab el-Zakat or...
, Molokai Channel and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim provide unique perspectives on their chosen sport.
At the Global Open Water Swimming Conference, awards are presented to the World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year, the World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year, the World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year. Special Lifetime Achievement Awards are also presented to individuals who have made significant contributions to the sport over their lifetime.
Background
The conference was first held in Long Beach, CaliforniaLong Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
and will be held in New York City and London over the next two years.
The conference's mission statement is to provide opportunities to listen and meet many of the world's most foremost experts in open water swimming
Open water swimming
Open water swimming takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, bays, lakes, rivers, canals, and reservoirs.The beginning of the modern age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when Lord Byron swam several miles to cross the Hellespont from Europe to Asia.In...
. Dozens of presentations cover every aspect of the vast and growing world of open water swimming
Open water swimming
Open water swimming takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, bays, lakes, rivers, canals, and reservoirs.The beginning of the modern age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when Lord Byron swam several miles to cross the Hellespont from Europe to Asia.In...
where attendees can learn the latest trends, race tactics, training techniques, equipment, race organization and safety practices for open water swimming
Open water swimming
Open water swimming takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, bays, lakes, rivers, canals, and reservoirs.The beginning of the modern age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when Lord Byron swam several miles to cross the Hellespont from Europe to Asia.In...
as a solo swimmer, competitive athlete, masters swimmer, triathlete, multi-sport athlete, administrator, race promoter or referee
Referee
A referee is the person of authority, in a variety of sports, who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on the fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport...
.