26 LISTENER MAY 26 2018
K
im Chambers concedes
she may be a bit mad. Not
many people would swim
nearly 50km through waters
patrolled by great white
sharks. But for 17 hours in
August, 2015, that’s exactly
what the 38-year-old San Francisco-based
New Zealander did as she became the
first woman to swim from the Farallon
Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge.
It’s a treacherous swim, even for the
most experienced marathon swimmer.
The water is cold, and the currents strong.
Great whites up to 6m long swim there,
too. In the weeks before Chambers’ suc-
cess, one of her friends and teammates at
open-water club Night Train Swimmers
abandoned his attempt as a shark began
to circle.
Chambers, who was born on a farm
near Te Kuiti, has an inspiring life story.A marathon, with sharks
Kiwi swimmer Kim Chambers was the first woman to swim
a dangerous stretch of water of the California coast. by RYAN HOLDER
SWIM CHAMPION
She injured her right leg in a fall when
she was 30 and ensuing complications
almost cost her the limb. After years of
painful rehabilitation, the former balle-
rina found freedom and weightlessness
in the water.
Now, Chambers is one of the greatest
open-water marathon swimmers in the
world. She was nominated for Sports-
woman of the Year at the 2015 Halberg
Awards and recognised as the first New
Zealander to finish the Ocean Seven
challenge, a series of channel cross-
ings – including Cook Strait, which
Chambers crossed in the company of
dolphins – that is the aquatic equivalent
of mountaineering’s Seven Summits.
Kim Swims, a documentary fol-
lowing her marathon undertaking,
is on the programme of the Doc
Edge International Documentary
Film Festival in Auckland.How did you get into swimming?
I was freelancing, on my way to a job
and in a big hurry. I slipped down a
staircase and my right leg hit a big
ceramic pot. I just thought it was a bad
bruise and just powered on. I eventu-
ally passed out from the pain and woke
up after they’d done surgery. I was
diagnosed with acute compartment
syndrome from blunt-force trauma. I was
30 minutes away from the amputation
of my right leg from the knee down.
I didn’t work for two years. I spent
that entire time in physical therapy
and started off lying on a bench saying,
“Kim, move your foot to the right;
move it to the left.” It wouldn’t move.
After two years, I still walked with a
limp. I was just craving freedom and
that’s how I discovered swimming.How did you get from that into