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Participation

If you are training for, have attempted or completed a solo Channel swim and would like to participate in the project, there are four ways that you can do so:

Please send any contributions to me at k dot throsby at warwick dot ac dot uk, or fill in the quick quiz.

1. Resource recommendations

I welcome recommendations of resources to add to the resources library:

  • Regularly maintained blogs describing the process of training to swim the Channel. These can be blog finalised post-swim, or ongoing blogs.
  • Channel swim videos on publicly accessible sites (e.g. YouTube). These should be start-to-finish films rather than short clips of a segment of a swim.

2. Interviews

If you would like to be interviewed as part of the research, please get in touch. Geographical location permitting, we can do this face to face in a location that suits you, or we can talk using Skype.

3. Written accounts

I welcome written accounts of people's solo Channel swimming stories. Below is a list of key questions that I am asking in the interviews, which you may find helpful as a starting point, but you should not feel confined to these and should feel free to focus on any aspect of your swimming and training experiences that you choose to. The written accounts can be as long or short as you like, and all contributions are very welcome. These will not be posted online, but will be added to the research data that I am collecting and will be used in anonymised form in subsequent publications and presentations.

  • What is your swimming history prior to the decision to swim the Channel?
  • How did you decide to swim the Channel? When did you make the decision?
  • How did you choose a pilot?
  • How did you train to swim the Channel? How long did you give yourself to train?
  • Describe the swim itself.
  • How did you feel about completing, or not completing, your Channel swim?
  • What effects did the training process have on your body?
  • What effect did the training process have on your daily life?
  • Did you try to change your body weight / increase your body fat as part of your training? How did you feel about that?
  • Was charity fund-raising a part of your Channel swim?
  • Why do you / did you want to swim the Channel?
  • What does it mean to you have swum (or tried to swim) the Channel?
  • How does swimming make you feel?

4. Quick Quiz

If you would prefer not to write a separate account, then there is a quick quiz here - you can fill in as much or as little as you like and then send the completed form to me. This is proving a very popular means of contributing to the project, producing a rich data set, so if you have a few spare moments, please complete the quiz




      Contact:

      TEL: 024 76575129

      k dot throsby at warwick dot ac dot uk

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