Swimmers race within the Chicago River for first time in almost 100 Years

For the primary time in almost a century, the Chicago River hosted an organized open swim.

The race on Sunday drew 263 swimmers and celebrated the river’s environmental turnaround.

Memories of the river’s industrial previous are a fixture for Chicagoans. On its web site selling the race, organizers posted a “water quality plan” beneath the headline “We know what you’re thinking.”

Abhilasha Shrestha of the University of Illinois Chicago examined the river 9 occasions over the 19 days main as much as the occasion and stated water high quality exceeded federal requirements for swimming.

“It is very clean,” she stated. “It’s up to 70 or 80 species of fish here, which is a testament to how clean the water is and that it is able to sustain the wildlife.”

A recent survey by Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium discovered species typically considered pollution-intolerant, like juvenile brook silverside and mimic shiner fish, have returned to the river.

Shreshtha credited the cleanup to environmental measures taken by the regional wastewater authority, federal regulators just like the Environmental Protection Agency and native activists like Friends of the Chicago River and Urban Rivers.

“It’s finally paying off,” she stated. “With hard work, dedication and advocacy, we can get this to the level where people are able to swim, and we have a historic moment right here, right now.”

Doug McConnell put collectively The Chicago River Swim to profit his nonprofit, A Long Swim, which raised $150,000 for analysis into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. McConnell based the group along with his sister, Ellen McConnell Blakeman, after their father died from ALS and she or he was recognized with the illness.

“I have [swam] in the Chicago River and it’s perfectly delightful,” stated McConnell, a longtime aggressive swimmer whose open-water swims have included crossing the English Channel. Growing up within the space, McConnell stated he by no means thought he’d see folks swimming within the river with such fanfare.

“People would use words like ‘toxic,’” McConnell stated. “But during my lifetime, we’ve witnessed this fabulous turnaround.”

Swim occasions had been a regular occurrence in Chicago within the a long time after 1900, when the town reversed the flow of the river to flush its waste away from Lake Michigan. Pollution quickly overwhelmed the river, and arranged swims stopped after 1927. Water high quality has rebounded because the Clean Water Act of 1972, and plenty of Chicagoans have embraced the river as a venue for fishing, kayaking and riverside strolls.

Luke Maurer was excited to be one of many first swimmers to revive the custom of organized swim occasions downtown. The 24-year-old from Wilmette, Ill. got here in third, swimming two miles with out a wetsuit in 40 minutes and 20 seconds. Becca Mann received the two-mile race with a time of 40 minutes and seven seconds, and Isaac Eilmes got here in second with a time of 40:13.

“I got beat by a few people, but I had a blast,” Maurer stated. “I was a little nervous, to be honest, I think most people were. But when you got going, it was like any other swim. It was nice, it was warm, it wasn’t too murky. It was a great time.”

Chris Bentley produced and edited this section for broadcast with Todd Mundt. Bentley additionally produced it for the net.

This section aired on September 22, 2025.