„IT’S BEEN JUST OVER A YEAR SINCE MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT THE ENGLISH CHANNEL CROSSING. MY FIRST MAJOR SETBACK IN OPEN WATER SWIMMING.“
My coach had to stop the race since I was on the verge of collapse and could no longer make a sensible decision myself. But the termination didn’t set me back or make me doubt, quite the opposite: It spurred me on to train even harder and prepare even better. This applies to both physical and mental training. Crossing the English Channel is one of the most difficult challenges in open water swimming. Some people speak of the Mount Everest for extreme swimmers. Here, every swimmer has to be at the absolute height of his or her own ability. An illness in the run-up to the race, as was the case with me last year, can hardly be compensated for in the local conditions. Shortly before 2 a.m. the race started. From Dover, England, a route of about 34 km to France lay ahead of me. I had to swim in total darkness for the first few hours until sunrise. It was particularly difficult to focus on the goal, but I was able to adjust to it in advance. The biggest difficulty for me in extreme swimming is certainly the low water temperature. I will never get used to it and the English Channel is really cold. Anyway, unlike last year, I was able to maintain my concentration at all times. The many hours of mental training had finally paid off. Even the strong current in the last three hours of the race couldn’t get me out of my rhythm and so I overjoyusly arrived in France after 11 hours and 10 minutes.
The Press wrote: “Despite the swell and the enormous strain, she swam the English Channel with the German women’s best time in 11:10 hours – around 30 minutes faster than the previous record holder. This also makes Nathalie Pohl the fourth fastest of all German swimmers who have completed this distance so far.”
