BY DAN NEWMAN
Staff Writer
Summertime traffic on a Friday? Tammy van Wisse just swam right around it.
On Friday morning, the 37-year-old Australian jumped into the water in Battery Park and swam across the Raritan Bay for 22 miles before reaching Sandy Hook five hours, six minutes and 48 seconds later. In the process, she shattered the previous world record set by her childhood hero, Gertrude Ederle, who 81 years ago swam the same route in seven hours and 11 minutes.
For van Wisse, it wasn’t so much about breaking the record as it was about paying homage to somebody who paved the way for her to do big things in the discipline of long-distance swimming.
“I really didn’t think I would break the record by so much. I thought maybe I could do it in six hours, but not much less than that,” a very spry van Wisse said immediately after coming out of the water. “The conditions were good and the water was much calmer than I expected. I knew I was moving well.”
Van Wisse heaped praise upon those who helped her to get to the end of the swim, which happened at about 12:25 p.m. beneath a blazing sun and hazy sky.
“I had great people around me today and without them, there’s no way this would have worked out,” van Wisse said. “I set my goals and they are the ones who helped me achieve them.”
Tim Johnson has been with van Wisse on some of her other excursions, and said that she didn’t go into this one without plenty of prior planning.
“Something like this takes plenty of time to research and plenty of preparation,” Johnson said. “She’s done longer events before distance-wise, but right now she’s at her peak, so I thought that she’d do very well today. She’s a very smart swimmer and she showed it today right from the start.”
Johnson said that originally, van Wisse considered swimming part of the Mississippi River, but he tried to convince her that coming to the New York metropolitan area would serve her and the sport of distance swimming better. Johnson’s thoughts may have been correct as about 150 people lined the shore waiting for van Wisse to arrive, along with numerous media outlets
“When she spoke about the Mississippi River, I let her know that the New York area was the media capital of the world and it’d make better sense and I’m glad it worked out.”
Van Wisse’s fianc, Chris McHattie, also made the trip from down under to witness the historic event.
“All I really did was try to cheer her on, not much else,” McHattie said. “I’m really impressed with the amount of people that came out today to the beach to see all of this. It’s pretty amazing.”
Van Wisse was flanked by three boats as she swam at an average of approximately 3 mph. As much encouragement as the people on the boats gave her, one person shared a similar experience with van Wisse in terms of facing the elements.
“There were some swells near the end, but in the end she was great today,” said Richard Clifford, who rode alongside van Wisse in a kayak the whole way. “Others have tried and failed at this sort of thing but Tammy swam hard the whole way. I had no idea she’d go this fast.”
After the event, van Wisse signed plenty of autographs and posed for photos. She also took the time to speak with members of her deceased idol’s family.
“This was really Tammy’s day today,” Gertrude Ederle’s nephew, Bobby, said. “What she did today was incredible. If my aunt were here she would be so proud right now.”
Van Wisse has set 11 Australian and world records during her career. Among her highlights: in 1996, she became the first and only person to conquer Australia’s Bass Strait, one of the most treacherous bodies of water in the world; and in 2001, she swam for 106 consecutive days along the Murray River, the longest in her home nation.
While her 22 miles of work last week may pale in comparison to her other achievements, van Wisse only had one goal coming into the day.
“To have broken the record of someone who’s my childhood idol, I feel so blessed,” van Wisse said.
With this grueling physical challenge out of the way, van Wisse said she wanted to start her next marathon type of event as soon as possible.
“I’m done with my warm-up in the New York City area. Now I want to go on a shopping marathon!” van Wisse said.