Loop North Information – Long swim set for Chicago River after lengthy wait

After practically a decade of planning, the Chicago River Swim will lastly happen on September 21, attracting 500 swimmers to navigate the revamped course alongside the river’s essential department.

(Above) Area the place the race will begin, from the Dearborn Street Bridge at left to the State Street Bridge at proper, then again to Lake Street and ending at Clark Street. (Click on photos to view bigger variations.)

By Steven Dahlman

Aug. 10, 2025 – It has taken a circuitous journey because it was first introduced 9 years in the past, however the Chicago River Swim, in accordance with organizers of the occasion, will occur on September 21 on the principle department of the river.

Five hundred swimmers will comply with a course from the Dearborn Street Bridge east to State Street, west to Lake Street, after which east again to Clark Street. It would be the first open water swim on the Chicago River for the reason that Nineteen Twenties. (Left) View from Wolf Point West wanting east alongside essential department of Chicago River. Swimmers will race alongside a lot of the gap seen right here, plus a shorter distance to Lake Street, after which again virtually to the beginning.

The swimming race was initially deliberate – in 2016 – for the south department of the Chicago River, however that occasion didn’t occur, nor did a race that was introduced in 2019. In April 2024, organizers stated the Chicago River Swim would happen that September however, citing security considerations, the City of Chicago denied a allow for the occasion and persuaded organizers to maneuver the occasion to Lake Michigan.

Starting from Ohio Street Beach, 500 skilled open-water swimmers navigated a two-mile course by means of Lake Michigan on September 22, 2024. The swimmers have been chosen from 1,160 candidates from 12 nations and 39 U.S. states. They included Olympic swimmers and Chicago Triathlon individuals.

The occasion has the assist of Friends of the Chicago River.

“This milestone event marks a powerful symbol of how far we have come in revitalizing the Chicago-Calumet River system which was once disregarded as a part of the sewer system and a second-class citizen as compared to [Lake Michigan] – a condition that is no longer true,” wrote the 41,000-member nonprofit group in its August 9 e-newsletter. “Friends has been a proponent…of the Chicago River Swim since its organizers first approached us with the germ of an idea almost a decade ago.”

Doug McConnell, co-founder of the nonprofit A Long Swim, and himself a marathon swimmer, says the occasion will elevate cash for analysis into ALS, the neurodegenerative illness also called Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and to offer swimming classes to 2,000 youngsters in underserved Chicago communities. The 2024 occasion raised $150,000 for ALS analysis and $50,000 for swimming classes.

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