Channel Swimmers

Madhu Nagaraja

	Swimmer	Madhu Nagaraja
	Age	33
	Country	India
	Date of Swim	10 August 2004
	Start Time	06:13 hours
	Swim Time	12 hours 31 minutes
	Starting Point	Shakespeare Beach, England
	Finish	Wissant, France
	`
	Monitoring Body	Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation
	Official Observer	Billy Beadle, CS&PF
	Pilot	Lance Oram, Codge Cobbitt
	Club	Rinconada Masters Swim Team, Palo Alto, USA
	Coach	Carol Macpherson
	Crew	Shelley Hoeft

Madhu learned to swim in Mysore with the Mysore District Swimming association, coached by Mr Nabhiraj. His coach focussed mainly on the technique, which Madhu considers the key for success in swimming - which he says kind of translates to "when the basics are right, results fly high". He later joined the Basavangudi aquatic centre, Bangalore, coached by Mr Pradeep Kumar. During his training under Pradeep, he swam for the university of Mysore for about 3 years. While studying for his BS degree in Biochemistry at Yuvaraja college, he won Individual swim titles and the overall team championship. Subsequently, he went on to earn a Masters degree in Biochemistry from the University of Mysore and a separate Masters in Computer Science. Later he obtained a position in the Income Tax department of the Ministry of Finance in the Government of India. He received a lot of encouragement from his officers in Mysore at the Income tax department. Subsequently, he moved to the USA and lived in Boston and Palo Alto. He moved to Canada and spent some time in Montreal at McGill University before taking up a position in Information Technology with CIBC Mortgages in Toronto.

In the past, Madhu always considered himself as a sprinter, with his best time of 53 seconds for 100 yards Free; however, in his youth he specialized on the IM and was also pretty good on Fly.

In late 2004, Madhu was still relaxing from his Channel swim and musing over an attempt on Lake Ontario - a 50% increase in distance over his Channel swim.

The story of Madhu's Channel swim are best told in his own words and acknowledgements.

Material provided by Madhu, Rinconada Masters, and The Channel Swimmers

Madhu`s Lake Ontario Crossing and more

Created: 9^th January 2005
Last Updated: 7^th January 2015