Westport Woman Sets NYC Swim Record

Liz Fry: failed same swim in 2008. Nycswim.org photoUPDATE Westport’s Elizabeth Fry, a 50-year-old asthmatic marathon swimmer, has set a record by swimming clockwise around Manhattan in 11 hours, 41 minutes and 5 seconds.

Fry started the 28.5-mile swim near the Willis Avenue Bridge on the Harlem River, near East 125th Street and FDR Drive, at midnight Thursday and finished before noon today. She’s also the first woman to swim around Manhattan clockwise.

The previous record of 17:48:30 was set in 1995 by male swimmer Kris Rutford.

“I feel great. It was beautiful,” she said, back on dry land, the New York Daily News reported. “Swimming at night, with the city’s lights on the water, it was terrific.”

Fry said sometimes the current was so strong, she felt like she was barely moving, the newspaper reported. Her toughest moment came once she rounded Manhattan’s tip and was fighting her way back down the Harlem River.

“It was probably the strongest right towards the end. Almost to where I’d stand still,” Fry said.

A crew of volunteers – including Fry’s sister – kept her safe, cheered her on and pointed out the best route. A kayaker stayed with her all night, watching for any debris in the water.

“I had such a great team of people helping me,” Fry said. “They were so supportive and caring.”

As the hours passed, they helped her refuel with energy drinks and snacks, including ginger snap cookies and even a chocolate bon-bon, the Daily News said.

Fry finished fifth in the 2009 Manhattan Island Marathon Swim in June and has successfully crossed the English Channel three times since 2003. She attempted the same swim in 2008, but her asthma forced her to discontinue.

Fry has been a swimmer several times in Westport’s point to point swim at Compo Beach.

She is one of only 20 swimmers in the world to have earned the elite Triple Crown title.

To earn the Triple Crown, the swimmer must successfully swim the English Chanel (21 miles), the Catalina Island Channel (21 miles) and circumnavigate Manhattan Island (28.5 miles).

A strategy consultant for mergers and acquisitions, Fry was volunteer director of the Swim Across the Sound fund-raiser on Aug. 1 sponsored by Bridgeport’s St. Vincent’s Medical Center.

More than 250 swimmers took part in the 15.5-mile event from Port Jefferson, N.Y. to Captain’s Cove Marina in Bridgeport.

Fry, a 1976 Staples High School graduate, attended UConn where she was a strong swimmer, but really hit her stride later when she converted to open water swimming.