Open water national swimming event coming to Chattanooga

An athlete swims in the Tennessee River to Ross's Landing to conclude the swim portion of the Ironman Triathlon on Sept. 28 in Chattanooga.
An athlete swims in the Tennessee River to Ross's Landing to conclude the swim portion of the Ironman Triathlon on Sept. 28 in Chattanooga.

Sometimes Chattanooga just sells itself.

The Chattanooga Sports Committee finalized an agreement with United States Masters Swimming last week that will bring its 2017 Open Water Swimming National Championships Festival to the Scenic City.

Rather than Chattanooga campaigning to host the event, it was Masters Swimming that approached local officials and swimming leaders about possibly hosting the festival, which is scheduled for June 2-4, 2017.

"They actually called us and asked us to bid on it," said McCallie School aquatics director and head swim coach Stan Corcoran, who directs the annual Chattanooga Rat Race open-water swim competition in the Tennessee River. "That kind of speaks volumes about how people like coming here and our venue."

The prominence of open-water swimming in Chattanooga has risen over the last decade because of events like the Rat Race and this weekend's Swim the Suck - and through the emergence of an organization, Chattanooga Open Water Swimming, that is dedicated to the sport.

A national championships festival is when two or more of the six annual United States Masters Swimming open water swimming national championship events are hosted by the same city.

photo An athlete swims in the Tennessee River to Ross's Landing to conclude the swim portion of the Ironman Triathlon on Sept. 28 in Chattanooga.

Chattanooga's festival will consist of a 1-mile fun swim on June 2, the 1-3 miles championship on June 3 and the 9+ mile championship on June 4.

"It brings people that are very passionate about open water, long-distance swimming to a very high-quality location and a very well-run event," Masters Swimming long-distance committee chairman Donn Livoni said. "Those are the kinds of things we're looking for our hosts to be as we select them in our bid process."

Outdoor Chattanooga and Chattanooga Open Water Swimming successfully hosted a single Masters Swimming national championship event in 2014 when 111 swimmers competed in the 2.4 mile national championship swim.

The 2015 national championships festival, which was the first ever to be designated as a festival, brought about 500 participants to Livermore, Calif.

Tim Morgan, president of the Chattanooga Sports Committee, traveled to Kansas City last week to meet with Masters Swimming officials and finalize the designation of Chattanooga as the event's host site. An estimated economic impact for the event has not been calculated.

"Being awarded the festival is Stage 1," Morgan said. "Now the planning process commences to make sure we have all the assets in place to be able to produce and ultimately exceed the expectations of USMS ."

Both Livoni and Morgan credited the work of Corcoran, Chattanooga Open Water Swimming founder Karah Nazor and Outdoor Chattanooga for building an open water swimming culture that prompted United States Masters Swimming to pursue the city as a potential national championships festival site.

"They were in the right area, they have experience hosting national championship events previously," Livoni said. "They have very strong community support. The leadership within their swimming community and their local outdoor organizations is great.

"We're very proud and pleased to give this bid to Chattanooga to host the national championships."

Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.

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