Mark Rew


Mark Rew is a 56-year-old American open water swimmer and endurance athlete from Bowie, Maryland.
Contents
Open Water Swimming Career[edit]
Rew is the first totally blind person to complete the One Mile Bay Challenge event at the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim, his first official open water swim event, completed in 2014 in 47:10. Rew swam as an untethered swimmer alongside his swim angel Brian Suddeth on 8 June 2014 accompanied by Brian's friend and kayaker Peggy Connor. Mark has continued training weekly with Brian and repeated the event in 2015, beating his prior time by nearly nine minutes!
Other blind athletes have completed the full 4.4-mile crossing of the Chesapeake Bay, including Butch Arnold who did an informal fundraising crossing in 1978, and Triple Crown swimmer James Pittar of Sydney, Australia who became the first blind competitor to complete the official Great Chesapeake Bay Swim event in 2003. Like many other swims, there are others who have attempted this swim and not completed it, sometimes just due to being unlucky with the weather.
Sight[edit]
Mark lost his sight in his early teens and learned to swim by informal practice. As an avid runner, he had the endurance for distance swimming, but didn't have a smooth style with it until he began studying Total Immersion freestyle with his college friend and open water butterfly swimmer Brian Suddeth in early 2014. Rew improved quickly due to the ease and quality of the Total Immersion instruction method, although the drills had to be modified and some new ones invented since Rew couldn't see his partner, nor view the many excellent videos available for training. Rew and Suddeth met with Terry Laughlin, the Founder of Total Immersion swimming in March of 2014 to share some ideas on the TI experience from a blind swimmer's point of view, and share their mutual enthusiasm for open water swimming.
RECORDS[edit]
- Great Chesapeake Bay Swim - One Mile Bay Challenge - First Blind Completion 2014 Race Results
- Great Chesapeake Bay Swim - One Mile Bay Challenge - Fastest Blind Completion 2015 Race Results
Open Water Swimming Events[edit]
- 1 June 2014 Severn River shakedown swim with U.S. Masters Swimming group Arundel Breakfast Club. Many river swims since.
- 8 June 2014 Great Chesapeake Bay Swim - One Mile Bay Challenge - #1492 Wave 4 - 47:10 guided by Brian Suddeth # 1510. Untethered. Race Results
- 14 June 2015 Great Chesapeake Bay Swim - One Mile Bay Challenge - #1293 Wave 3 - 38:31 guided by Brian Suddeth #1292. Untethered. Race Results
- 24 September 2016 3K "Swim for the Potomac" environmental fundraiser event by WaveOne Swimming at 1:27:21, swimmer #358. Untethered. results
Other Blind Swimmers & Achievements[edit]
- James Pittar: Swimming the Continents, Swimming with Skyscrapers, Great Chesapeake Bay Swim - First Blind Crossing - James Pittar
- Bill Tricker
- Matt Logan
- King Benny Nawahi
- Michael Hambourg
- Butch Arnold
- Narelle Simpson
- Dennis Million
- Dewey Million
- Tanarath Narayan Shenoy
- Sanket Bhirud
- Butch Arnold Chesapeake crossing
- CDifferent - Blind Athlete and sighted guide connection
- Swim Free Angel
- Swim angel
- Untethered swimmer
- Viking Endurance Swim
External links[edit]
- Mark Rew Sees Success
- Brian Suddeth Coaches Mark Rew, Deena Lambert
- Story on Rew's Mark Rew's unprecedented 2014 swim - DNoOWS
- News story on Mark Rew's unprecedented 2014 swim
- News story on Mark Rew's 2015 plans to repeat his GCBS Mile swim
- Story of Mark's completion of a 3K in 2016 with Suddeth's guidance
- Mark Rew Sees Success - DNoOWS
- A Total Immersion forum discussion on the challenges in teaching and being a blind swimmer
- Total Immersion Swimming
- Great Chesapeake Bay Swim
- Lin-Mark Sports
- Some of James Pittar's swims
- 2012 Wilson Bridge Half Marathon - Visually Impaired Results
- 2011 TCS Annapolis Half Marathon Results
- Athlinks search for "Mark Rew" event results
- Arundle Breakfast Club Swimming (Facebook site)
- World Open Water Swimming Association
- Open Water Swimming
- Daily News of Open Water Swimming
- No Excuses In The Open Water