Bryony Rowe recently completed one of open water swimming’s most iconic challenges: a solo crossing of the English Channel. Her swim came almost 100 years to the day since Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to make the crossing - and Bryony did it wearing a SwimTrek cap, no less!
We caught up with Bryony to hear what inspired her to take on the Channel, how a SwimTrek coaching camp became part of her training journey, why SWANS goggles are her go-to, and what it means to join the incredible group of women who have successfully made the crossing.
When did you decide you wanted to swim the English Channel, and what pushed you to start?
Bryony: 'The first time the thought of the Channel being a real thing came into my mind was watching someone in my swim club training and then doing the Channel, who I think has also done SwimTrek trips, called Laura Sharp. She swims in my triathlon club swim club, and when I joined there - that was three years ago - she was just finishing the training, and then I watched her on Instagram do it. And it was like, “Wow, there are people actually doing this, people I know doing this”. It definitely, at that point, didn't seem like something that I would have thought, “Oh, that's in my reach to do”; it just became a real concept. But actually, she introduced me to the charity that she did relays with, and I went and did a relay the next year. I actually finished that relay and thought, “My gosh, I can't imagine finishing, having done all of that in the water, not just taking it in turns”.
But then, six months after that, at Christmas, I watched the film Young Woman in the Sea, and I think ever since the relay, it had just been in my mind - again, not necessarily something I was thinking, “I'll have to do it”; it was just a concept in my head. And then this film just inspired me so much. I also watched the Nyad film, and it was just seeing that, because they came out quite close together, and seeing this kind of belief, the belief systems in people's minds and what it looks like for these things. [...And then] my parents, they were like, “Oh yeah, you should give that a go”, and then that really made me think, “Well, if people are behind me, I'm going to go for it!”'
How long were you training for, and how was the training?
Bryony: 'So I did a relay summer of 2024; January 2025 rang around pilots, got a slot. I got a cancellation slot, actually, which is amazing; that was why I had an 18-month training window. Some people have 2 1/2 years. I think I was quite fortunate because 18 months is already quite a long time to sustain momentum, and I take my hat off to anyone who's doing it for 2 1/2 years. It's a long time to stay locked in. So, I really started the training in March 2025, and then swam it on the 31st of July 2026 - that's probably 16/17 months.
The fortunate thing for me is that I grew up as a club competitive swimmer. So I was swimming a lot when I was a teenager. I wasn't a shining star or anything. I was an average club swimmer. But even to be an average club swimmer, you're swimming, you know, 7-plus times a week. You're always in the water. You do a lot. So, I think the feeling of the training didn't actually feel too alien, other than now I'm slotting it around work. [...] But I think the time that it really got intense was early spring 2026, because you have a big winter of pool swimming, and that, like I said, I didn't find too hard to slot into my life; […] but as soon as it got to a stage where you have to go from swimming in pools all the time to getting into open water, that was when I was like, “this is hard”, because I live in London, I don't own a car, and the logistics of finding places to swim, getting there, needing to have people come with you to support you - literally hold your food bag, put your Dryrobe on you at the end. In early springtime, finding water that was not too cold, it's a real balance. And that was mentally really tough.'
It was incredibly special to see you swimming the channel in your SwimTrek cap. How did you enjoy the SwimTrek Marathon Swim Camp in Croatia, and how did it help with your preparation?
Bryony: 'I should add in here that I love the SwimTrek hat because I have quite a small head and it just doesn't slide off. It's a really good one. Obviously, with swimming, you end up having a few favourite hats, and that's one of my favourites!
So, the SwimTrek I went on was the Marathon Swim Camp, and it was the perfect choice, because this was when I was three or four months into my big training, and I had done quite big swims, and I'd built up to, say, 15K swims. But I think the reason we picked that camp over the longer one was that it was a really good mixture of building up sea swimming and getting training in and then also having some afternoon holiday time, and that feels like an important thing you want to have. And I got to meet a really great group of people on that trip as well, like such an eclectic, varied group: people who swam the Channel, people who were training for different things, people who lived in different parts of the world, someone who was training to swim around Manhattan, like all these really cool things. And we had time to then relax in the afternoons and chat about it. And then one of the guides was also training for the Channel. So, we did it at the same time; she did it a few months before me, and it was a really cool way to make connections like that. I mean, all the swimmers I connected with, we've all kept in touch, which is really nice. We have a group chat, and I shared on the day when I was swimming and sent them my tracking link, which is amazing. It was really cool to be connected to Christine [SwimTrek guide], to see her, what she was doing, and her swim; it was really awesome.
It also came at a very good time in my training when I was just building up to the summer training I did the year before, where I was training for Windermere, which was six hours. So we got to build up to doing a three hour swim, a three and a bit hour swim on the last day, and it was just great to get that kind of built up of distance, being in the conditions to replicate and having everything taken care of: the food taken care of, your routes taken care of, you've just got to get yourself up and get there. So, it was the perfectly timed distance increase I wanted at that period of time. It was really about days on days of getting into the sea and getting distance in a way I hadn't really had a chance to yet and building a foundation block that then kind of carried me through the rest of the summer.'
'And I got to meet a really great group of people on that trip as well. [...] All the swimmers I connected with, we've all kept in touch, which is really nice...'
Some swimmers say they have to change their swimming technique when undertaking such a long-distance swim. Did you have to make any adaptations to your technique?
Bryony: 'I don't know if I had to change my technique for long distances. I think I had to change my technique because I had such bad habits from being a teenager, to be honest. When I met up with my coach, she was like, “Oh, there's a lot we can do”, and I think I just had bad habits from having spent hours plodding away in a pool, but not having much one-to-one coaching as an adult. But there is a logic with learning techniques that slow down your stroke rate, so you're being more efficient. So there's a lot of glide needed when you put your hand entry in, trying to ride the glide, I suppose, and timing your kick to work with that. And I think when you're swimming long distances, you do reduce your kick a lot. […] So I think a lot of the technique training I did was all about conserving energy and trying to reduce the amount of times your arms go around, basically.'
What swimming gear did you choose for the challenge?
Bryony: 'There are some bits of kit that have really stood the test of time. I mean, I've swum in SWANS goggles since I was 11, so I'm a big fan of them anyway, and for me, they do wonders. I didn't ever use prescription goggles before the channel training, and they are a game changer. I’d only ever done long swims with contact lenses in, but if any water gets in, it's so painful. Then suddenly SWANS sent me prescription goggles, and it was so good for the training.'
You mentioned on your social media that swimming the Channel solo was actually the "least solo thing ever"; can you tell us more about how the people around you and the open water swimming community supported you through this?
Bryony: 'The crew I had were so good, and one of them was my coach, so we'd been working together very closely. And then one person - she's one of my best friends - we met doing the relay together, and she also does a lot of big swims, and she came on the SwimTrek holiday with me, so we went together, which was nice. Her name's Siobhan. And then she really went above and beyond; I asked her to be on my crew from day one, but in the build-up to my Channel gate, you know how I was saying it was very hard when you had to get to open water and find these things, like she earmarked a lot of weekends for me where she was like, “I'll just come and sit on a beach and help”, and we went and did lots of training in Cornwall and she kayaked for 10 hours over Saturday and Sunday, just giving me nutrition, which is truly above and beyond in levels of friendship, you know, and then all of them gave up time to come and wait in Dover for me and come down and go on the boat.
One of my best friends also does my nutrition; he's really knowledgeable. He's an ultra cyclist, and he just transferred his knowledge over. And again, we did so much work in the run-up to it, because it wasn't only that swim, right? There's lots of training swims. The year before I did Windermere, even things like coming to the SwimTrek week, it was planning all the nutrition so you could really test out what works. So, we put a lot of time into working out amounts and how much you'd need and all that stuff. So again, it's really people giving you up their time and being willing to help.
And then the open water swimming community is amazing. I think people are so willing to share knowledge and insights and get behind you. I felt like there was this kind of army of people, because I now know lots of people training for swims or doing the Channel or having done the Channel, that you could just reach out and be like, “Hey, I need some tips on this. I need some advice on that. What can you share?”, because there's a lot to try and learn on your own, and actually something like ultra swimming isn't always just something you can Google to get an answer.'
It's incredible that your swim was almost 100 years to the day that Gertrude Ederle was the first woman to swim the English Channel. How does it feel to join the legacy of amazing women to complete this challenge and be an inspiration yourself to many others?
Bryony: 'This feeling of joining such a small group of women, because I think it's like less than 1000 women have swum the channel, it feels like a very surreal thing. I think there is this almost slight imposter syndrome of being like, “How can I belong in that world?”; but obviously we put in the hard work, and we come out of it, and we deserve to be there. But it feels very awe-inspiring. I feel very proud of myself to be able to be part of that group now. It’s a real privilege to have had the time and the support to be able to do that, because it's a privilege to be able to train for something like this, you know? You have to have resources behind you to do it, and you have to have things slot into place, right? So I feel that real sense of privilege.
And then also wanting to, therefore, kind of hand the baton down. So, I think being someone that people can look at - it's like that feeling I had of Laura Sharp, where I was like, “Wow, someone has done this, so it's real”; I have a feeling of wanting other people to feel like it's real. And lots of people have messaged me about it and being like, “Oh, you kind of inspired my daughter to look at this”, or like other people, and I think that's the feeling it gives me: Wanting other people to hear about it, so something becomes real and therefore potentially achievable. I just really want other people - and it doesn't have to be channel swimming - I want people, or women, to look at something that is hard, committing the time they want to it, to something they want to achieve, and like committing to themselves to do it. That can be in anything, but give yourself that commitment.'
'I think that's the feeling it gives me: Wanting other people to hear about it, so something becomes real and therefore potentially achievable...'
If you could talk to your past self at the beginning of your channel crossing journey, what’s a piece of advice that you wish you could go back and give yourself?
Bryony: 'I think I could have had a quieter peace of mind. I think I would look at it now as like: you can trust more in the process. So, I think there is a feeling during, of it being the first time you've set out to do something so big, and being like, “Am I doing enough?”, and people telling you that you are, but it's like, “Oh, am I though?” - but I was! And I think the best bit of advice is: If you think of things like this with training being an 80-20 rule, so if 100% is the dream, you have your 100% training outlined, you aim to hit 80%, and it will be enough; but the 20% isn't like the times you kind of just can't be bothered, that 20% is like you're ill, work comes up. So, accept there are things that won't go to plan, but you know you've done as much as you could with the things that were in your control.'
If you could give one main reason for 'why you swim', what would it be?
Bryony: 'There's definitely something I always have in my mind: that you don't have to be the best at things. And by the best, I just mean, like, people swimming in the Olympics or like people who were national swimmers, you know? You don't have to have been the best at things to give something hard a go. And actually, there is so much value sometimes in being mentally strong for these things. Like you, anyone - anyone's a bit of a strong phrase - but a lot of people could want to undertake the Channel, and some of those would be amazing swimmers who wouldn't make it because they won't have the mental tenacity. Whereas actually someone who wasn't a very good swimmer but commits three years and then builds their mental tenacity would be more likely to get through it than an amazing swimmer who committed a year but didn't build that mental tenacity. And I think for me, there is that strong feeling of being like, average is an interesting word because I appreciate it's a very niche sport for being average, but like, looking at myself as a swimmer when I was younger: I was average. I was never a national swimmer or anything, but I think I know how to work really hard now. That feeling of pushing myself and knowing I can push myself, and what that means I can achieve, is a big “why”.
I think a phrase I use is: You can't just back yourself. Back yourself to do something. Don't be worried about it being self-centred or whatnot. It has to be self-centred to commit to your own dreams, doesn't it? Have the confidence to do it. Honour your own dream.'
'You can't just back yourself. Back yourself to do something. [...] Have the confidence to do it. Honour your own dream...'
After swimming the English Channel, do you have any plans for what's next on your swimming journey?
Bryony: 'I do have some things. One of the things me and [my friend] spoke about, actually, was one of the trips you guys [SwimTrek] are doing where it's like hike and swim – which looked really cool because we love hiking and love swimming. So maybe something like that again, where you're doing things a bit more for fun.
I do have a swim booked next year for Lake Annecy, which is, I'm not diminishing the achievements of a 14K swim, because that's a long way, but now, in comparison to something like the Channel, and the amount of commitment to my time, feels like a much more pleasant thing to undertake. And then I have a long, long-term dream of I'd like to swim the 20 bridges around Manhattan at some stage. That’s the big one in my mind for now.
And then just, you know, have a bit of a lie-down.'
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Photos of Bryony's Channel Swim by
