1. Brandon Smith
Journalism 3098
Marcy McDonald Profile
10/22/13
STORRS—Imagine swimming across the English Channel once, then turning right around and
swimming back. Such is the feat of Marcella (Marcy) MacDonald, a podiatrist from Manchester,
Conn.—and she’s done it three times.
MacDonald, 49, has been swimming the English Cannel since 1994. In August, she
completed her 14th English Channel crossing with a 24-hour, 16-minute two-way crossing of the
Channel (her third two-way crossing)—setting an American record for number of crossings.
MacDonald began open-water swimming at the age of 12, when her swim coach took her
and her class to swim in the ocean. She didn’t swim in college, but she always found her way
back to the water. She competed in triathlons, but hated running. She found her niche with long-
distance swimming.
“I finally realized I’m pretty good at it…I’ve met some really great people in the world
and it kind of gets me out of the office for a good vacation,” MacDonald said.
MacDonald doesn’t get paid for her crossings, and in turn doesn’t receive the kind of
publicity that someone like Diana Nyad does. This doesn’t bother MacDonald, who added that
Nyad “loves the camera.”
A lot of preparation goes into swimming the English Channel. MacDonald must hire a
pilot and crew to accompany her for what she said amounts to a 27-hour day (for a two-way
crossing).

2. “I’m just the fish in the water—and the fish has a team…without my crew, without my
pilot, these things would never be done,” said MacDonald. The conditions must be just so in
order to attempt a crossing, and her pilot is the one who determines if and when MacDonald can
swim. Sore throats, jellyfish stings, and rough seas are just a few of the obstacles one faces when
making such a swim.
You might think someone who does distance swimming is concerned about her times, but
MacDonald isn’t. In fact, she hates timed swims.
“I like being very consistent with my training—I like doing a certain amount of yardage
every week, every day,” she said. The rest of the battle is between the ears.
“It’s a lot of mental preparation and just saying, ‘you can do it’…I know how to get my
body ready for it…the mind will tell you that you can’t do it but the body is very, very strong,”
MacDonald said.
Once in the water, MacDonald said she simply draws on past experiences to know that
she can make it.
“It’s been much easier [since the first time]—now I know what I’m getting into and it’s
sometimes harder because I know what pain I’m getting into.”
Every 45 minutes to an hour, MacDonald stops to receive food from her crew. Even
when she wants to stop, like she did in August after completing the first leg of the crossing,
MacDonald (or one of her crew members) will push herself to keep going. What it comes down
to, she said, is whether or not she has a “good excuse” (like an injury) to get out of the water. She
didn’t have one for her most recent go-around.
The day following a crossing can be difficult, to say the least.

3. “The lactic acid is so bad that I’m always the first one awake and I only sleep for three
hours and it’s a very uncomfortable sleep.”
It all sounds like a fierce competition, but MacDonald maintains that it isn’t.
“I’ve learned through the years that the average person that reads an article, that looks at
something on TV that has to do with swimming—they really don’t know what we’re going
through—so it’s just not worth it, I’m not going to damage myself.”
For MacDonald, swimming the English Channel is a test of will—one that she has passed
14 times, and plans to take again next year.
“It’s amazing what your body will do for you—if you let it,” she said.