8-Hour Swim Relay In Boston Harbor Raises Money For Kids With Cancer
BOSTON (CBS) – Dozens of swimmers, including three former Olympians, jumped into Boston Harbor Friday morning for a good cause. The 23rd annual Boston Harbor swim helps kids battling cancer.
About 50 wetsuit-clad swimmers hit the water at Rowes Wharf at 7 a.m. and proceeded to power through a 22-mile open-water relay, in the rain at times.
The yearly harbor swim raises money for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Mass General Hospital for Children.
Leading the way in this year's Swim Across America event were Janel Jorgensen McArdle, who took home a silver medal in the 1988 Seoul summer Olympics and now travels the country for various Swim Across America events, 2012 Olympian Alex Meyer, and 1996 Olympian Eric Wunderlich.
"For me it was all about being able to leverage the sport of swimming to give back," McArdle said.
"It's not fun in the rain," admitted swimmer Stephen Colbert, a cancer survivor who also lost his brother to cancer. "It's just such a warm great group of people that all truly are swimming for something."
Each participant swims 15 minutes at a time, several times throughout the day. The relay takes about 8 hours to complete. McArdle said this one event raised about $325,000.
