Chicago River hosts open swim for first time in practically a century

For the primary time in practically a century, swimmers took to the open water of the Chicago River on Sunday.

Participants within the Chicago River Swim made their manner alongside a one- or two-mile route downtown.

It was the primary time in 95 years that the Chicago River hosted an official open swim. After years of false begins, house was made for 500 skilled open-water swimmers to make the leap.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson offered opening remarks for the swim.

“The Chicago River Swim is a symbol of Chicago’s resilience and progress,” Mayor Johnson was quoted in a information launch. “Once too polluted for recreation, the river has been restored as one of our city’s greatest assets. Today shows how far we’ve come in reclaiming our environment for future generations.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Illinois) additionally emphasised how the Chicago River Swim is symbolic of the how a lot environmental circumstances on the river have improved.

“It’s been 100 years — the plan to go from an open sewer to a recreation and natural treasure, so today’s sort of the kickoff of where we can go,” Quigley stated.

For generations, as defined by Friends of the Chicago River, town went on treating the river system like an alley — dumping trash and sewage and damaging circumstances for folks and wildlife alike.

“After more than 100 years of this abuse, the Chicago River and the others were so polluted that when the Clean Water Act passed in 1972, officials were convinced no one would ever want to fish or swim here — and set the standards incredibly low,” Friends of the Chicago River wrote.

But for half a century now, efforts have been below approach to clear up the river. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago arrange the Deep Tunnel system to scale back flooding and enhance waterway high quality. Meanwhile, Friends of the Chicago River — based in 1979 — undertook habitat restoration and long-range planning efforts for river enchancment, with efforts starting from planting wetlands vegetation to encouraging river-friendly land improvement.

“In the 1950s, Richard J. Daley talked about his hope that someday, we could fish in our lunch hour in the Chicago River, and kids could swim,” Quigley stated. “Well, we’re getting there, folks, but we’ve still got a ways to go.”

The Chicago River Swim published results Sunday.

For the one-mile swim, Levy Nathan, 26, of Chicago received the boys’s non-wetsuit class, and Olympic gold medalist Olivia Smoliga of Tempe, Arizona — a Chicago space native — received the ladies’s non-wetsuit class. Joe Higgins, 41, of Chicago, received the boys’s wetsuit class, whereas Jessica Achtstatter, 41, of Park Ridge received the ladies’s wetsuit class.

For the two-mile swim, Isaac Elimes, 21, of Colorado Springs, received the boys’s non-wetsuit class with a time of 40:13, whereas Becca Mann, 27, of Homer Glen, received the ladies’s non-wetsuit class with a time of 40:07. William Sindewald, 39, of Chicago received the boys’s wetsuit class with a time of 48:27, whereas Liz Spears, 25, of Gilbert, Arizona, received the ladies’s wetsuit class with a time of 46:37.