|
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - University of Maryland senior Stacy Chanin on
Wednesday became the first person to swim three 28- mile laps around Manhattan.
Chanin, 23, of Virginia, climbed out of the East River
at 96th Street at 9:30pm. She began the swim at noon on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the swimmer, Roy Brunett, said Chanin
had kept up her strength with “banana and honey” sandwiches, hot
chocolate, lots of water and granola bars”.
Chanin
had twice circled Manhattan |
before and
trained for the new feat by swimming about 284 miles a week. The Yonkers native
has competed as a swimmer since she was 15 and hoped to persuade Olympic
authorities to add a longdistance swimming event.
The
Leukemia Society of America solicited pledges for each mile she swam.
In July, 1983, Julie Ridge became the first person to
swim around Manhattan twice. With her three laps, Chanin came up just short of
Diana Nyad’s distance record, set on a Florida-to-Cuba
swim. |
