A lifelong competitive swimmer, Wamsley “carried the dream” of swimming the English Channel for 38 years, having decided at age 12 that she would swim the channel by age 50. At the time, she was inspired by a magazine article about other elite swimmers who had completed the challenge.
“I was reading it and I thought, ‘This is amazing. This is so cool. This looks so challenging and fun ... I’m going to do this.”
The 21-mile swim between the white cliffs of Dover in England and the shores of Calais in France takes between 12 and 17 hours. Swimmers who attempt this feat are accompanied by a boat and a medical team, but cannot leave the water to take breaks for it to count.
“Nobody can touch me. I can’t get on the boat, I can’t touch the boat,” she said. “I’m mentally preparing for 15 to 20 hours.”
The process of preparing for the swim began in 2022, as signing up for the swim must be done years in advance. Additionally, Wamsley assembled a team of professionals to help her complete the swim.
“The first person I called to possibly coach me … said to me, ‘You’re going to be so cold you’re not going to be sure if you’re ever going to be warm again. You’re going to get stung by jellyfish. You’re definitely going to vomit. You’re going to be so exhausted you probably won’t be able to walk. If that sounds fun to you, give me a call in a year,’ ” Wamsley said.
Wamsley began her training in earnest in January 2024, starting out in a pool, eventually swimming from San Francisco to Alcatraz, and in October 2024 from Pointe Bonita to Angel Island under the Golden Gate Bridge.
“It’s very similar to anything else,” she said. “You have your build week, you have your bulk week, your speed week, and you have your recovery time.”
Wamsley’s swim “window” to complete the journey is from May 30 to June 10, depending on weather and water conditions. Her window concludes three days before her 50th birthday.
Wamsley’s road to the channel in part inspired her to found Amy’s Swimventure, a nonprofit that dovetails two of her passions: advocating for water conservation and empowering women to achieve their own goals.
Wamsley also became passionate about clean water and conservation after nearly losing her hearing to a bacterial infection.
“I had looked online because there’s different sites ... where you can see if the water is safe to swim in. It had said that it was safe to swim in, but yet I still got this infection,” she said. “I started to think about all the people who get in that water ... people who take their kids out to Caesar’s Creek, where I train a lot, and they swim in that water.”
This experience also led her to learn more about forever plastics, which end up in local waterways and can cause damage.
“Even though water can be fun and it can be safe, it can also be very dangerous in a lot of ways,” she said.
Wamsley swam the Maumee River near Toledo on April 19 as part of a water quality monitor training event for Partners for Clean Streams.
After swimming the English Channel, Wamsley is planning an aquatic tour of Ohio’s 16 designated Scenic Rivers to promote water conservation.
Wamsley also hopes that her journey will inspire more women to follow their own dreams, regardless of others’ judgments on age or physical appearance.
“I’ve mentioned to people that I’m a swimmer and guys would literally be like, ‘You’re not a swimmer.’ And I said, ‘OK, well, can you swim a 10K?’ ” Wamsley said, adding, “It doesn’t matter what your age is. It doesn’t matter what you look like. You can live your dreams.”
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