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Lynn Sherr

Interview by Lynn Green

In the fitness world, swimmers don't seem to get the attention that runners do, but dedicated swimmers are every bit as committed to their chosen form of exercise as the many distance runners out pounding the pavement. Just take a look at the swimmers doggedly completing their laps early one morning in a crowded community pool. They're determined—you might even say they're "in deep."

Journalist Lynn Sherr, best known for her work as a correspondent on ABC’s “20/20,” describes her interest in swimming as "an obsession, benign but obstinate." In Swim: Why We Love the Water, she chronicles her love of the sport, culminating in her landmark long-distance swim of the Hellespont, the strait that separates Europe from Asia. Along with her personal journey, she offers a quick trip through the history of swimming, with fascinating tidbits about swimmers of old and their modern counterparts.

We jumped in with some questions for Sherr about her own passion for swimming and mankind’s long fascination with being in the water.

How did you get started as a swimmer? What are your earliest memories of swimming?

It began with frogs. As a toddler I used to watch them, mesmerized, at the edge of the lake at the camp my parents owned in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. And I learned. No kidding—my breast stroke is very strong and my frog kick is terrific.

When I got old enough to be a proper camper—all of five years old—I also got some proper human lessons. There were always (as there are now) faster swimmers than I, but I always relished jumping into the water and making it to the other side.

Tell us about your swimming routine. Do you swim regularly for fitness?

Ever since I joined U.S. Masters Swimming last year, I’ve been doing drills at least twice a week in winter, sometimes accompanied by hour-long swims on other days. In the summer, I swim daily—outside—in the ocean or the bay or in the pool. My goal last year, when I was training for the Hellespont swim, was to swim longer distances, at a faster pace. I had worked up to two hours or more in the water before I went there.

Today I’m just trying to perfect my freestyle and pick up my speed. And while half an hour used to satisfy me on the off days, I’ve gotten so used to the longer workouts that I feel cheated if I have to stop before an hour is up.

You describe some of the gadgets now available for swimmers—lap counters, fancy goggles, etc. What's the one swimming accessory you can't live without?

If I could only have one piece of equipment it would be goggles. They’ve changed so much about the sport: the ability to swim for long stretches in both chlorine and salt. The ability to actually see underwater. And for those of us who are nearsighted, the ability to wear contact lenses—or prescription goggles—and actually see what’s in front of us.

I just wish they didn’t make you look so weird. We all look like extra-terrestrials about to invade planet Earth.

Where is your favorite place to swim?

Anywhere the water is warm and the lane is free. When it comes to the debate between pools and open water, I’m an equal-opportunity addict. Yes, you’re bouncing between walls in a blue box—but pools have a beauty of their own that I find irresistible. And yes, there is a special joy in the wild waters of a natural bay, or lake, or ocean, especially when you start in one place (or one continent) and finish in another. Come to think of it, I miss lake swimming and would love to find a wonderful new (warm) lake swim.

And I’d say that a golden sun and blue sky certainly help, but then, I like to swim at night, also, when the stars reflect on the surface; and I like to swim in a steaming hot pool when the snow is falling. That’s one of the cool things about swimming: there’s always another body of water.

One of the statements in the book that surprised me was: "I have never had a bad swim." C'mon! Hasn't the water ever been too cold? Or the pool too crowded? Or your body too tired to enjoy a swim?

No, no and no. Let me explain: I just don’t go in when it’s too cold. I am NOT a polar bear type. I know my limits. As for the crowds: well, sure, I prefer my own lane, and I’m not crazy about mass start in open water races. But just last weekend, while I was swimming in a hotel pool, I actually invited a waiting swimmer to share my lane because I knew I’d be in for an hour and didn’t want to deprive her. And then there’s last summer, when I voluntarily joined 431 swimmers from around the world to cross the Hellespont. If you’d looked closely, you would have noticed that I held back during the start—to keep from getting swallowed up by the crowd. There are ways.

As for the fatigue, call me crazy, but I like that feeling after a good, hard swim. And if I’m tired going in, the water wakes me up.

So I’m not a Polyanna about it. Just sensible. And lucky.

I love the Egyptian hieroglyph of a swimmer that’s included in the book. Where or how did you come across that?

Me too—in fact I love all the images I found illustrating the remarkable history of swimming. I did a huge amount of research, consulting hundreds of books and articles and websites, not to mention scholars and swimming professionals. And the idea that taking a swim was so familiar to the ancient Egyptians that they had a symbol for it, made me dig even deeper. For that one I found an Egyptologist, Bob Brier, through a Greek classicist (it was my college major), and he sent me the hieroglyph.

 

By the way, I’m especially proud to have included two ancient coins showing swimming—one with the goddess Aphrodite and one, the mythical Leander. Wouldn’t it be nice if our modern quarters showed a swimmer?

There are many references in your book to the spiritual aspects of swimming. How would you describe the experience of swimming and what it does for you in a spiritual or emotional sense?

It lifts my soul and it calms my body; it energizes me and soothes me, all at once. I can think about things in the water with a laser-like focus that is often not possible on dry land, in a noisy office. I have written some of my best ledes while swimming laps. And figured out some of the thorniest problems.

I have a friend who split from her husband and then spend hours a day in the pool, just going back and forth in her singleness. She worked it out. Me? I’ve cried in the water and laughed there, too; it’s so non-judgmental, I can enter it without reservation. It probably helps that we’re near-naked when we swim: no barriers, no hidden secrets.

Not that it’s all so serious. I like to play in the water, too, especially with my grandchildren. I do a wicked sea monster.

Now that you've swum the Hellespont, do you have any other long-distance swimming goals?

Let me first say that accomplishing the Hellespont was, hands down, the purest jolt of exuberance I’ve ever experienced. I was on a high for days—maybe weeks—afterwards, and I cherish the friendships that were forged in and around the waters. Perhaps more important, I proved to myself that I could challenge my body and push it to a new sense of power. [In the photo below, Sherr shows the medal she received last summer for swimming the Hellespont—a storied channel that divides Europe and Asia.]

 

 

So yes, it’s very tempting to find a new goal and go for that feeling again. And certainly there are channels and lakes that tempt me. I’m looking at a few, but there’s nothing specific at the moment. Although I am considering a smaller but equally iconic crossing this summer: the race from Brooklyn to Manhattan across New York’s East River and under the Brooklyn Bridge. Stay tuned.

Do you have any encouraging words for adults who don't know how to swim or aren't confident about their swimming skills?

May I quote Dory, the bighearted blue fish from the movie Finding Nemo? “Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.” Several of the people in my USMS class didn’t start until they were in their 30s or 40s, and they’re doing major marathons today. But you don’t have to aim for the English Channel. I think there’s a major sense of satisfaction waiting for anyone who can make it down the lane for the first time. It’s fun, it’s good for you, and as you get older, it’s probably the only strenuous activity you can do comfortably, without wrecking your joints. Also, it can save your life.

Who do you hope will read this book?

I hope it reaches a wide cross-section of readers (and listeners—there’s an audiobook too). Obviously, the swimming community, whose devotion to this activity reflects my own passion. Swimmers love—LOVE—to swim, and I’m so eager for them to learn more about the rich history and lore of this wonderful activity. Did you know that Julius Caesar escaped from the enemy by swimming? That Chairman Mao performed his famous Yangtze River swim mostly on his back—with his arms and legs afloat in what one wag called his “lounge-chair style”? That the first person to cross the English Channel (MatthewWebb) used the breast stroke? That President John Quincy Adams nearly drowned in the Potomac? And that no bathing cap in the world will keep your hair dry?

But I also hope that non-swimmers will be intrigued enough to see what they’re missing. To appreciate that this ancient activity indeed has something for everyone; that even if you’re just a fan of Esther Williams movies (or lucky enough to be experiencing those magnificent spectacles for the first time), or tired of being a fashion victim in the ghastly lighting of most bathing suit dressing rooms, there’s something in swimming, and Swim—for everyone.  

So I’m hoping that those who can’t swim will be inspired to take some lessons and dive in themselves. I hope it makes people want to get wet.

 

CREDITS: Egyptian hieroglyph from R. O. Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian.

Photo of Lynn Sherr with Hellespont medal by Sharon Young.

In the fitness world, swimmers don't seem to get the attention that runners do, but dedicated swimmers are every bit as committed to their chosen form of exercise as the many distance runners out pounding the pavement. Just take a look at the swimmers doggedly…

NonfictionSports

Tom Ambrose

Interview by Alden Mudge

Tom Ambrose considers himself “a newcomer to cycling.” True, as a youngster in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s, he owned and rode a number of bicycles. And now, as a grandfather, he pedals around the countryside near his home in rural Suffolk on a Dawes, which he calls “a sporting amateur’s bike.” But until recently, Ambrose had never written a word about cycling.

That changed with the publication of his well-designed, richly illustrated and informative new book, The History of Cycling in Fifty Bikes. It’s a volume that racers, hipsters on fixies, families with cargo bikes and occasional cyclists in their seemingly endless contemporary varieties will want to add to their collection.

In brisk, short chapters, Ambrose covers the technological advances of the bicycle, from the first foot-powered bikes like the so-called Hobby Horse through the development of gears and derailleurs, carbon fiber, bike lights and such advances as John B. Dunlop’s inflatable tire and James Starley’s wire spoke, innovations that were necessary to the later development of automobiles and aircraft. He relates captivating anecdotes from bike racing’s early days to the present, including cheating scandals from the earliest Tour de France competitions. And he introduces readers to the wide array of inventive, competitive and sometimes cantankerous personalities who have shaped and been shaped by bicycles.

But Ambrose’s chief interest, one that mostly murmurs quietly just beneath the surface of his narrative, is what he calls the “social aspects” of bicycling, its social history. The topic of the bicycle’s relationship to women’s emancipation, for example, is one that percolates through several chapters in the book.

“The bicycle became a viable means of transport at the time when—in the 19th century— you’ve got a developing women’s consciousness about equality and women’s rights,” Ambrose explains. “A woman never had anything of her own in terms of wealth, and she depended on men for everything, including transport. As women got ideas that they wanted more social liberty, this became irksome. So the coming of the bicycle gave them this great freedom. In a sense you could say that the lady’s bicycle is probably the emblem of female emancipation.”

Likewise, Ambrose observes the impact of the bicycle on the ebb and flow of working-class life. “The bicycle really did offer reasonably low-cost commuting. Of course that enables your workforce to come in from farther afield. You have all these factories of the Industrial Revolution sucking people into the cities, and the bicycle was very useful for that. Later, as prosperity spread, you have the interesting thing of people being borne into the city for work purposes then using the bicycle as a means of escape.”

Ambrose adds, with a sort of virtual wink, “And the bicycle was probably a good sexual vehicle as well. Cycling clubs sprang up and encouraged young men and women to go off bird watching in the countryside and things like that, but the real purpose, of course, was to get to know one another.”

“The invention of the bicycle was the greatest contribution to human health because it enlarged the gene pool,” the author says. “Young men from villages in France or Britain or the USA could then court girls from more distant villages. They would ride two or three miles instead of being confined to a breeding pattern within their own community.”

Ambrose’s text on the history of biking is accompanied by extensive photos and other depictions of bikes. These include photographs or period illustrations of each bicycle, as well as many of the inventors and bike racers.

There are also close-up views of technological innovations like the Lucas bike lamp, an early oil lamp that made nighttime cycling safer and more convenient. And there are completely unexpected images, such as one showing overloaded, camouflaged bicycles used by the North Vietnamese army to transport supplies without detection during the Vietnam war. “That was a major demonstration of using a Third World technology to defeat a First World power,” Ambrose says, returning to his interest in the bicycle’s impact on history.

Ambrose, who became a full-time writer after a career in filmmaking and advertising, thinks we are now witnessing “a third kind of revolution or effect of the bicycle as it has become an urban vehicle. Yes, it’s still a major sporting vehicle. But bicycling allows you to smartly maneuver in crowded and congested cities. So it’s the city dweller who has taken over the bicycle in many ways.”

To which this citified cyclist says: Ride on!

Tom Ambrose considers himself “a newcomer to cycling.” True, as a youngster in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s, he owned and rode a number of bicycles. And now, as a grandfather, he pedals around the countryside near his home in rural Suffolk on a…

NonfictionSportsBlack History

Andrew Maraniss

Interview by Keith Herrell

The author of a new book on Perry Wallace, who broke the color barrier in SEC basketball in the 1960s, explains why he decided to tell Wallace’s little-known story.

Why did you want to write Strong Inside?
Perry Wallace is a fascinating, brilliant person who overcame tremendously painful and challenging obstacles to make history—and yet most people have never heard of him. It’s as if nobody knew the story of Jackie Robinson. So it was an incredible opportunity to get to tell this story. It’s one I’ve wanted to tell since 1989, when I was a sophomore at Vanderbilt and wrote a paper about Wallace for a black history class.

A lot of research went into this book. How long did you work on it?
Eight years. My first interview was with Perry’s coach at Vanderbilt, Roy Skinner, in the fall of 2006. I spent several years just doing interviews and research before I began writing.

What do you admire most about Perry Wallace?
There are so many things to admire about Perry—his perseverance, his character, his desire to always do the right thing—but what I admire most about him is his intellect. Spending the last eight years talking to him has been an incredible education for me on everything from human nature to race relations to parenting.

You were born too late to see Wallace play high school or college basketball. Of all the games you describe in the book, which one would you have liked to have seen in person?
I would travel back to Oxford, Mississippi, on February 9, 1968, to see his game against Ole Miss, the first time an African American had ever played a basketball game there. By all accounts, the abuse he took from the crowd was as bad that night as any of his career—but Perry played one of his best games, completely dominating in the second half.

How hard was it for you to come to terms with the day-to-day segregation and racial attitudes of the South in the 1960s?
It was important for me to place Perry Wallace’s story in the context of the place and times in which he operated. He grew up in Nashville at the height of the civil rights movement and as a 12-year-old would sneak downtown to watch the sit-ins at the lunch counters. In college, he met Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer and Stokely Carmichael when they passed through town. Perry’s story is as much a civil rights story as a basketball one.

Did you get any suggestions from your father [journalist and author David Maraniss] about writing this book?
The best advice came through years of osmosis: just reading his great writing ever since I was a little kid. I used to spread The Washington Post over the dining room table, and our sheepdog Maggie would jump up on the table and finish my cereal while I read the paper. Rest of the family was still asleep, I guess.

Put yourself in Wallace’s shoes. Knowing what you do now, would you have attended Vanderbilt and broken the color line in the SEC?
I don’t know that Perry would do it all over again knowing what he knows. And as strong a man as he is mentally and physically, if he has those doubts, there’s no way I could do it.

 

RELATED CONTENT: Read our review of Strong Inside.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The author of a new book on Perry Wallace, who broke the color barrier in SEC basketball in the 1960s, explains why he decided to tell Wallace’s little-known story.

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