Irish Record Holder for the English Channel

Place of Birth: Belfast
Current City: London

Swimming Biography

Conor started swimming for Coleraine and then Bangor Swimming Clubs. His first sea swim was from Omeath to Warrenpoint, Co. Down at the age of 8. He has since one the Irish Long Distance Chamnpionship (17k) held in Lough Erne 10 times. In 1993 Conor was second in Lake Windermere, the highest finishing position ever by an Irish swimmer in this race. He also completed the Manhatan Island swim in 2001. He was a member of the the first relay teams to swim the length of Lough Neagh, and the North channel. Conor also played water polo for Ireland up  to the 'Under 21' level.

Swimmer's Report – The English Channel
Direction: England to France

The weather was unpredictable all week and there was a real possibility that I wasn't going to get a chance to start. We finally got the nod on the Friday, one day before the end of my tides. Therefore, I wasn't that nervous as the swim started, just relieved that I was at least going to get a chance to make my attempt.

The one piece of advice I remember from Gráinne was that she said 'Never look back'. She told me that she had looked back a few times at the start of her Channel attempt and the White Cliffs (of Dover) looked as big as ever and she felt she was going nowhere. I managed not to look back until 3.5 hours into the swim and I took a quick peek. Thankfully, the didn't look too big.

The start and middle of the swim were very enjoyable. I remember a point around the 4 hour mark when everything seemed to come together; my stroke was good, I was covering a lot of distance, and I felt incredibly comfortable and relaxed. At that point I really felt I could have kept swimming forever. Unfortunately, that feeling soon passed.

Towards the end of the swim the weather turned very bad. It was very difficult to maintain a consistent pace or rhythm to my swimming, especially with the waves crashing over me as I tried to breathe.

I landed on very rocky part of the French shore and it was difficult to climb onto land and clear water. When I finally did, the feeling was more of relief than exhilaration. That came later.

The worst bit of all was having to swim back out to the boat. As it was by now extremely rough the boat hadn't been able to come close to the shore so the swim back to the boat seemed as if I had stared on a two way crossing.

My time was 9 hours and 11 minutes. I was awarded the Matthew Webb trophy as the fastest swimmer from Britain and Ireland to complete the Channel that year.