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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Emma John

Pull. Breathe. Kick. Glide … the cautionary tale of the first cross-Channel swimmer

An illustration showing a swimmer on a stopwatch placed in the Channel between Dover and Calais
‘What should have been a 21-mile distance turned into nearly 39 as tides and weather threw Matthew Webb off course.’ Illustration: Robin Hursthouse

Pull. Breathe. Kick. Glide. Three decades since my last swimming lesson, I found myself sitting in a lecture theatre chanting these words with a few dozen strangers, all of us trying not to take anyone’s eye out as we matched them to the actions.

Pull. Breathe. Kick. Glide. I’ve been to enough Edinburgh fringe shows to inure myself to the embarrassment of audience participation. And, to be honest, this one was a pretty euphoric communal experience. It turns out you don’t need to be near water to marvel at a swimming feat, especially one that’s more than 150 years old.

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