Hundreds plunge into Chicago River in first open-water swim in nearly a century

https://chicago.suntimes.com/outdoors/2025/09/21/swim-chicago-river-race-outdoors

79•divbzero•4mo ago

Comments

macintux•4mo ago

> The advocacy group, founded in 1979, has long worked to protect and restore the Chicago River, for example pushing for discharge from water treatment plants to be disinfected before being released into the river, Frisbie said.

46 years of work to pull this off. Impressive.

ssl-3•4mo ago

Knowing just a tiny bit about the history of the Chicago River, my first thought when I saw the headline was "Cholera! It's for everybody!"

But learning that they've actually -- finally -- solved that issue really outweighs whatever snark I may have had in mind.

(And for those who don't know: The Chicago River has a really interesting history that definitely includes cholera, and also includes reversing its direction of flow (!) to help solve problems like that.)

troupo•4mo ago

10 or so years ago I read an article that thanks to environmental efforts we now have rivers and lakes that haven't been this clean since at least pre-industrial era.

We went from the Great Stink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink to having beaches and swimming competitions inside big cities

xnx•4mo ago

> finally -- solved

There are still combined sewer overflows into the Chicago River. There have been 5 events so far in 2025.

https://apps.mwrd.org/csoreports/

pfannkuchen•4mo ago

Is the massive reduction in manufacturing due to trade policy and other factors over those 46 years a coincidence? Like the manufacturing is what made it dirty in the first place, right? If the manufacturing goes away, the problem of making the river clean presumably becomes a lot easier?

HankStallone•4mo ago

A lot of dirty stuff like stock yards and slaughterhouses also moved out of the main city toward the outskirts.

CaliforniaKarl•4mo ago

For those who don’t believe it, I strongly recommend that everyone take the Shoreline Sightseeing 75-minute Architecture Tour, starting at Michigan Ave., just downriver from the Apple Store. It takes you a little up the North branch of the river, and more along the South branch.

The tour’s route overlaps the swam route, so you’ll be able to see the river’s cleanliness yourself. When I took the tour in May, the river was great! I’m really happy to see it so clean.

AnotherGoodName•4mo ago

They also talk about the reversal of the Chicago river so the sewerage went down the Des Planes and onto the Mississippi instead of the great lakes. This was of benefit to Chicago residents since they drank out of lake Michigan. All the towns and cities on the Mississippi were never too pleased about this though :).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Sanitary_and_Ship_Cana...

Larrikin•4mo ago

There really isn't any need to recommend any specific tour company's tour. There is a ton of history on the river and the tour guides are all very proud of their city. I did the tour once on a visit and it was great, but once I lived there it became a thing I did for friends and family and never tired of it. They all find something great to bring to the tour and there are so many buildings and history I never heard an interesting fact more than once.

The river tours are almost like a complete opposite of taking family to the top of the empire state building.

enobrev•4mo ago

Whenever people visit during the warmer months, I almost always recommend or take them on the Architectural tour. The tour guides are knowledgeable, friendly, and tell great stories. The actual tour is a treat - even if you don't care about the architecture or history, it's a nice way to spend some time on the river. And there's a bar on the boat. My 5-year-old even sat still for the whole ride last month (and there's a place to get ice-cream you can eat while waiting in line to board).

zeroc8•4mo ago

I took that one, tour guides were great. Most buildings look the same though ;)

pirates•4mo ago

Not at all actually.

ajtaylor•4mo ago

We did this boat tour over Labor Day. 100% highly recommended. Our guide was a fount of fun and interesting knowledge, guiding us through the history of the river.

yard2010•4mo ago

Did this on labor day. The whole thing was surreal. Chicago is perfect! I loved almost everything about it

xnx•4mo ago

Is the Shoreline Sightseeing tour better than the Chicago Architecture Center one? https://www.architecture.org/city-tours/river-cruise

alex1138•4mo ago

That's a headline where if you're not paying attention sounds awful

"Hundreds plunge int- oh god, did a bridge collapse???"

evbogue•4mo ago

I was there as the assistant head of river kayak safety, and it was a historic moment. if you were watching, i was the kayaker wrestling the malfunctioning bouybot back into place under state street. why they couldn't use old fashioned bouys instead of ai bouys? beyond me.

i've also accidentially fallen in the river a couple of times over the past two years, and i will confirm that the water is safe and getting colder every day this time of year.

Insanity•4mo ago

Huh what is a bouybot? First time hearing about that.

evbogue•4mo ago

https://i0.wp.com/www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/...

In this image from the Chicago Tribune you can see two of the bots. one is orange, the other yellow. they should have been in a straight line since they were being used to guide the swimmers down the course.

i was told they position via gps and their gps just didn't work downtown.

Boltgolt•4mo ago

Also known as the "kiddy pool" that SpaceX slaps cameras and a starlink dish in on top of to record landings in the middle of the ocean

Rebelgecko•4mo ago

GPS can be fiddly when you're in a pit or surrounded by lots of tall things that block RF or make the signals bounce around. Clearly the event needed a local GPS augmentation signal :)

michaelt•4mo ago

> i've also accidentially fallen in the river a couple of times over the past two years, and i will confirm that the water is safe

I believe for open water swimming, the definition of 'safety' they're aiming for includes checking the water for human faeces and bacteria like e.coli.

A one-in-250 chance of getting diarrhoea the next day is no problem for clumsy drunks, who'll just be glad to make it out - but for a health/fitness event it's undesirable.

cyberax•4mo ago

Morbo's Voice: "There were no survivors" ( https://youtu.be/6CKNza43CSA?t=7 )

barbarr•4mo ago

Was a bit scared by the headline at first

imp0cat•4mo ago

https://www.swimmablecities.org/

Yeul•4mo ago

And now some people want to reshore polluting heavy industry...

When the Netherlands and Germany got rich enough the first thing that happened was cleaner rivers!

southernplaces7•4mo ago

In september? Why not go whole hog and make it a January tradition, like where I'm from. Sissies.

cap11235•4mo ago

They do it every winter, but in the lake, not the river.

homeonthemtn•4mo ago

Until St. Patrick's Day~

smallmouth•4mo ago

I hope they included a broad-spectrum antibiotic in the their swag bags. Other than that, that's quite a sight seeing all those folks paddling down the Chicago River...jeez

fred_is_fred•4mo ago

Why do the swimmers (who presumably are excellent at swimming) have these floaty things attached? Obviously so they don't drown but where does that risk come from?

I've heard in open water swims you can get kicked accidentally - is that the major risk? Is it heart issues from cold water?

doublerebel•4mo ago

Look up ‘tow float’. They are useful for many reasons, lots can happen in the water particularly dark outdoor deep spaces with lots of people and things splashing and obscuring visibility.

Tow floats are common in all open water swimming, e.g. triathlons.

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