Downstream

wetsuits, ‘No,’ he says firmly,
‘they are not allowed. No aids
are permitted, as in Channel
swims. I trained in a wetsuit
for a triathlon a few years ago
and gained twenty seconds
each two hundred metres.’
Otter still runs its three
annual swims, usually in the
Thames. In 2012, twenty-four
swimmers took part in the
mile at Windsor, but the half-
mile in Henley was only
confirmed the morning of the