Swim Miami is an open-water swimming event held annually in south

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. Races typically take place in March or April every year. Today the event is owned and operated by the H2Os Foundation, a foundation dedicated to eradicating drowning in south Florida. The swim also helps to develop open-water swimming as an Olympic-style sport in Florida.

History

The original Swim Miami began in 1989 by Jimmy Woodman, founder of Active.com, in conjunction with Florida Sports Magazine and continued successfully through 1998. In 2005, Miami Sports International, a subsidiary of Swim Gym Aquatics, led by four-year

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

swimming captain Jonathan Strauss, then restored the event and adapted it to the future of open water swimming. The original idea and concepts for Swim Miami came about due to a demand to bring open-water swimming to the forefront of aquatic sports with intentions of developing it into an Olympic sport. It was also created as a way for swimmers to give back to the sport that was able to give them a life of health and fitness. Swim Miami's growth and popularity can largely be accredited to its focus on Olympic-style swimming and its elite swim field. Past Olympians and professionals to swim in the event have included Gary Hall, Jr., Milorad Čavić, George Bovell,

Ricardo Monasterio Ricardo Andrés Monasterio Guimaraes (born October 22, 1978) is a former competition swimmer who represented Venezuela at the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. Monasterio was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He attended the University of ...

, Anthony Ervin, Ed Moses, Nathan Adrian, Robert Strauss, and Tiffany Cohen.

Current day

Swim Miami takes place annually in April. Originally staged at the Miami Rowing Club in Key Biscayne, FL, the event moved to the Miami Yacht Club on Watson Island (Miami) in 2011. Swim Miami currently consists of four swims: a ten-kilometer swim, a five-kilometer swim, the Miami Mile, and an eight-hundred meter swim. In 2017, the event returned to its original location at the Miami Rowing Club. Once restored, Swim Miami was first sponsored by the brand

Speedo Speedo International Limited is an Australian-British distributor of Swimsuit, swimwear and swim-related accessories based in Nottingham, England. Founded in Sydney, Australia in 1914 by Alexander MacRae, a Scottish emigrant, the company is n ...

in 2005 and 2006. Sponsorship has since switched to the Nike Swim brand, licensed and owned by

Perry Ellis International Perry Ellis International is an American clothing, fashion, cosmetics and beauty company that includes a portfolio of brands distributed through multiple channels worldwide. The company focuses primarily on sportswear and casual clothing for nic ...

. Due to strong popular branding of both the swim and its location, the event is well patronized by the general public, attracting upwards of 2,000 combined participants and spectators in the four race categories. In 2015, the success of the Swim Miami race led organizers to create two additional events for the South Florida area, Swim Miami Beach and Swim Fort Lauderdale Beach. Those races ran annually through 2018 before the series reverted back to a single race in 2019. In 2020, the race was held on a "virtual" basis due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, with swimmers swimming the various race distances on their own and then submitting their times to be recorded by the event staff. The race returned to its traditional in-person competitive format in 2021.

References

{{reflist Recurring sporting events established in 1989 Sports in Miami

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Open water swimming 1989 establishments in Florida