Outdoor swimming, wild swimming, open water swimming, whatever you want to call it – even if you’re not into it yet, you’re bound to know someone that is, and sings its praises loudly and enthusiastically whenever prompted. Its popularity has been steadily growing in the last decade, and was jet-propelled during lockdown, when anyone wanting to swim had to seek out an alternative to their regular pool to get their fix.
Swimming in unchlorinated water is no longer the preserve of triathletes, ironmen or women and naturalists, it is now almost mainstream, existing in many forms. From regular groups of dippers congregating on their local riverbank, lake swimmers with membership and community thrown in, and high end commercially offered ‘wellness experiences’ with the whole shebang – sauna, firepit and all, outdoor swimming is where it’s at. And the cohort is still growing as swimmers find ‘their tribe’ and ‘their swim’ and do it their way.
At Henley Swim, in the 20 years of our operation we have also spotted some changes. Women have always made up a large percentage of our swimmers, and in some events such as the Henley Swim Festival, where fun, discovery, community and meeting new people are also a feature, they normally dominate in numbers.
In the past, we have seen that the Thames Marathon – our longer, endurance event with up to 13km of swimming, has had more men than women signing up. However our statistics over the last five years have shown that women have crept up on the men. Last year was the first year that ours stats showed us we had more women swimming than men, and that trend has stuck so far for the entrants we have for the Thames Marathon 2025. What are the reasons for this?
Cassie Patten, Open Water 10km medallist and outdoor swimming coach at WaveCrest swimming recognises these figures, and believes a growing swim community has provided a springboard for women to swim further:
“The statistics are absolutely fantastic, and it’s been incredibly rewarding to coach and witness this growth first hand. I’ve seen more and more women embracing longer-distance endurance swimming, driven by a growing sense of confidence and community. The rise of the open water swimming community has played a huge role in this, providing a supportive environment where women feel encouraged to take on bigger challenges. I’m really looking forward to watching more women continue to swim further.”
Lorraine Beamish has been swimming recreationally with reading Bluetits for a while. She explains why this year, she feels able to take on the full 13km Thames Marathon for the first time:
“Having swum the Half Marathon and seeing other like-minded women that swim ‘for fun’ cross the full Marathon line, I knew I wanted to have that achievement myself. Swimming with Reading Bluetits has given me the encouragement and confidence to push myself to achieve things I would not have thought possible before. During our swims we actively talk about our challenges and encourage each other to ‘give it a go’ as well as assuring other swimmers of the support that the Henley Swim team put in place. It’s becoming clearer to many that you can swim your own swim and it doesn’t matter if you’re not the speediest – all are welcome and all are encouraged over the line – right to the last swimmer!”
Lorraine’s friend Naomi agrees:
“I think women have found supportive swimming communities and that we are cheering each other on to challenge our limits and are finding that we can do much more than we ever thought possible. People who believe in us cheering us on and swimming with us. Groups like the Bluetits and others are allowing people to challenge their limits in safe spaces, and as we become more confident we can take on much bigger challenges.”
We welcome everyone at our events, and feel a real sense of satisfaction that the encouraging nature of the swim community, with our events being part of that, are encouraging people to swim further and contributing to their own sense of achievement – whatever their gender.
Why not try one of our event this year and see how much you can achieve? www.henleyswim.com
