Remember how when you were a little kid, you’d go swimming any time you had the chance, no matter how cold it was? Maybe that same imperviousness to temperature’s how 9-year-old Daniel Bessonov managed to swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco in 41 minutes Sunday.
Wetsuit clad Bessenov swam almost 2 miles in the reportedly 57-degree water of the SF Bay, beginning on the prison island and ending near the Golden Gate Yacht Club. Accompanied by a boat of supporters and swimming alongside his coach, he powered through the treacherous currents, jellyfish (guess they didn’t all wash ashore), and “the ‘mind games’ of open-water swimming.”
“Cold and nice,” said Bessenov as he finished the swim, saying that he wants to do it again when he’s 10, this time without a wetsuit. Yeah, I don’t feel like a failure AT ALL.
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