Some swimmers don’t want to wait to tackle Chicago River

Chicago Sun Times, by Mark Brown | September 14, 2016

You’ve heard all the talk of making the Chicago River safe for swimming by 2020. A pair of local swim race promoters have a much faster timetable in mind.

Don Macdonald of Wrigleyville and Douglas McConnell of Barrington are pitching local officials on a proposal to hold an open water swim race on the main stem of the river through downtown as early as next summer.
To prove its feasibility, they are seeking to hold a “test swim” on Sunday, Oct. 23, that would be open only to an invited group of elite swimmers.

This is where I’m supposed to joke that the test is intended to determine whether the swimmers can survive without getting sick or worse. But that would be cheap. Actually, they’re just hoping to work through some of the logistics, assuming they first receive all the necessary permissions, which isn’t yet the case. Read about the issues swimmers face in the Chicago River.