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Barbara Hernandez, the best icy water swimmer in the world, she became the first Chilean woman to complete the 47 kilometers of the 20 Bridges Manhattan Island Swim open water marathon, with a time of 7 hours and 59 minutes.
In addition, with this tremendous achievement, the ‘ice mermaid’ became the first Chilean person in the history of our country to obtain the Triple Crown in open water swimming, which he completed after crossing the 2019 English Channel and the Canal Santa Catalina.
Barbara swam this edition in the company of the North American Erin Markovich. An ultramarathon where there are no seats, and the feat is to finish it.
For our champion, the pandemic represented a gigantic obstacle. In fact, she was six months without being able to swim, and was forced to train in a garbage dump full of ice, because her discipline, not being considered an Olympic sport, did not have permits to get into a pool.
“I’m very happy, it was a super big challenge”
From the United States, Barbara spoke with BioBioChile and he gave us his first impressions of what it was like to achieve such a feat.
“All good, I’m very happy, it was a super big challenge, the Hudson was the hardest part because it had a lot of wind, giant waves. Happy to have completed it successfully, ”he said.
The ‘ice siren’ deeply thanked the Chilean people for their constant support and also appreciated the work of her team, since she only had six weeks to prepare.
“Very grateful to the team and to all the people who helped us get here, especially the Ministry of Sports and Andrónico Luksic,” he added.
“Thanks to all the people who were accompanying us, writing, for all the love. We had been trying to inform them for several days. It was a challenge to go back to training and in six weeks to prepare for this marathon ”, he added.
“I get a lot excited seeing all the difficulties we had to go through”
For Barbara it is not just any achievement. Chile witnessed all the difficulties it had to go through in order to train and prepare for this marathon.
At the beginning, he had to fight to be able to obtain a special authorization to train in quarantine zones, and thanks to efforts by the Ministry of Sports, he was finally able to get back into a swimming pool.
However, while the permit was being processed, the Chilean had to train in a garbage can and perform swimming exercises on a bench, floor work with dumbbells and cardiovascular preparation on an exercise bike.
Despite all the difficulties, in six weeks he was able to prepare and today make history.
“I am very excited to see all the difficulties we had to go through, I say we had, because without the support of my team it would have been impossible ”, he confessed.
“I felt all the affection of the people. I owe each one of these strokes and these hours of swimming to all the people who have believed in me and who have helped me to continue training and representing Chile ”, he added.
For those who do not know
For those who do not know her, Bárbara Hernández is a giant swimmer of icy waters. In fact, and as mentioned at the beginning, it is the best in the world.
In addition, she was the first Chilean to swim across the Catalina Channel in the US, the first Chilean to swim across the English Channel, and now the first Chilean to compete in the demanding Manhattan marathon.
In 2018, it was crowned the best of its discipline worldwide, ranking number 1 in the world ranking of the International Winter Swimming Association season 2017-2018.
In addition, he claimed three gold and two silver medals at the Freezing Water Championships held in Bled, Slovenia, in 2019.
“I felt and knew that we had to risk it completely. It is the pride of being able to represent our country and the people with the most effort. That makes me deeply happy and it is something that I am not willing to give up ”, he closed.
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