The Rise of City Swimming within the U.S.

At final summer time’s Chicago River Swim, the primary in a century in that iconic waterway of beautiful skyscrapers and ornamented drawbridges, swimmers have been captivated by one of many joys of city swimming: a singular perspective on the town, from the water.

“There were guys who said, ‘I came to be competitive and I ended up sightseeing,’” says founder and organizer Doug McConnell.

From Chicago to New York, Baltimore to Portland, swimmers throughout America are taking to city waterways, increasing public entry to rivers and harbors via open water swim races, splash events off piers, everlasting swimming seashores, and even plans for a floating, river swimming pool off Manhattan.

It’s a motion a long time within the making, as anti-pollution legal guidelines and billions spent in overhauling sewer methods and cleansing contaminated riverbeds made waterways secure once more for swimming. It’s been buoyed extra just lately by the rising reputation of open-water swimming, impressed by all the things from the Olympic debut of a 10K swim in 2008 to the present wellness pattern of cold-water immersion.

Now, city swimming advocates are getting a lift from Swimmable Cities, a world grassroots motion chartered in 2024 that’s championing the appropriate to swim in city waterways. The alliance is placing a highlight on 200-plus member organizations from greater than 100 municipalities which have discovered artistic methods of getting individuals safely into metropolis waters, and it’s inspiring others to take up the problem.

“The trajectory that we’re on is that swimmability will just become a mainstream part of urban planning and integrated water management,” says Matthew Sykes, a cofounder of Swimmable Cities, which plans to select a North American metropolis for its subsequent summit in 2027.

“Canada, the U.S., Mexico—I think these are all places where we’re going to see a lot of growth,” Sykes says. “There’s the sporting part of this community, but I think the biggest growth is in everyday people just wanting to access their waters.”

To make certain, many U.S. rivers and streams stay unsafe for swimming, and people which might be deemed secure can nonetheless be tainted by sewer overflows or dangerous runoffs after rains, and swimmers can face dangers of currents and particles. Then there’s the bureaucratic hurdles to lifting swimming bans. And open-water swimming is probably not a struggling metropolis’s prime prospect for funding.

The largest impediment in McConnell’s 13-year quest to place swimmers within the Chicago River was a long-held notion that the river was a poisonous soup. “So much of what these urban swims have dealt with, not just in Chicago but other places, it isn’t so much that the water isn’t clean, it’s that people’s perception is that the water isn’t clean,” McConnell says.

In the weeks earlier than the one-mile and two-mile swims final September, all 72 water checks confirmed “solidly in the green zone” for secure swimming, says McConnell, who runs the occasion via his household’s A Long Swim nonprofit supporting ALS analysis. The second swim is ready for September 20, with a goal of 750 slots, up from 500.

While the Chicago swim opened once-a-year entry, the Human Access Project (HAP) in Portland, Oregon, has led the way in which to everlasting entry at seven seashores and two docks on the Willamette River since its founding in 2010, with one other seashore to open this yr.

A $1.4 billion, two-decade revamp of the town’s stormwater and wastewater system, accomplished in 2011, cleaned the river. HAP and volunteers eliminated greater than 500 tons of concrete from the river and its banks, says its govt director, Scott Fogarty.

Now it’s weighing in on the pending Superfund cleanup of the riverbed, principally downstream from the swimming websites, and including extra night Splashdown events and a second weekday River Huggers Willamette crossing swim.

“We like to say this is activism disguised as a party,” Fogarty says. “We envision greater, not just access, but greater open water swimming going forward.”

In Baltimore, ultramarathon swimmer Katie Pumphrey is utilizing sport to get individuals into the harbor. This yr, she began Baltimore Open Water Swimmers with plans for a one-mile swim this summer time within the harbor and, presumably, one other one within the fall that replicates her celebrated 24-mile swim in 2024, crossing from the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

People are likely to tune out discuss of environmental progress, however seeing swimmers recurrently within the harbor resonates emotionally and even pushes individuals to attempt it themselves, she says. She’ll even be partnering with learn-to-swim applications.

Pumphrey has the backing of Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, a nonprofit group that set a aim in 2010 to make the harbor secure for swimming. The water was secure sufficient for a public swim in 2024, after the town spent greater than $1 billion in sewer enhancements, says partnership vp Adam Lindquist. Next, the group intends to host extra summer time Splash occasions and research places for a everlasting swimming website.

“My hope is that Baltimore will have more recreational access,” Pumphrey says, “making sure that that’s open and accessible to everyone.”

New York City is taking the danger out of river swimming with its plan for a floating pool within the East River close to the Manhattan Bridge. Over the previous decade, the +POOL initiative has gathered public and authorities help totally free and secure entry to the river via the idea of a plus signal–formed pool with filtered river water flowing via its partitions.

Kara Meyer, +POOL managing director, expects to have a smaller pilot pool being examined off Pier 35 this summer time and open to swimmers in 2027.

There’s no strong date for opening +POOL, however the group has already achieved one other type of first: establishing a regulatory pathway for different organizations that wish to get approval for what the state calls novel bathing amenities, like a swimming seashore off a park.

Swim teams have organized special-exception swims round Manhattan or the Statue of Liberty for years, however Meyer says about 500 of New York City’s 520 miles of waterfront (outdoors of designated seashores like Coney Island in Brooklyn) are usually not categorised for swimming.

“We’re really proud of that policy work and we hope that other people will tap into it,” Meyer says. “We have a vision where people all over New York City are accessing their waters in safe ways.”

This article is from the Summer 2026 difficulty of Outside journal. To obtain the print journal, turn out to be an Outside+ member right here.