by Jessica Kieras
Shortly after arriving in Chile from Sydney, Australian marathon swimmer, Ross Youngman teamed up with local Chilean marathon swimmer, Francisco Aguirre. Youngman was seeking traditional marathon swims in Chile and Aguirre was training for upcoming Catalina and Manhattan swims. Together, they organized two unique challenges: repeating a historical route across Lago Villarrica and a coastal swim on the shoreline of Chile.
Lago Villarrica
On February 17, 2024, the duo took part in an organized event from Playa Pucón to Playa Pucará, a traditional route connecting two cities, originally pioneered by Chilean legend, Jimmy Rasmussen in 1947. According to Aguirre and Youngman’s swim documentation:
“Jimmy Rasmussen was an athlete who marked an entire era in Chilean physical activity as an excellent practitioner of various disciplines such as athletics, swimming, weightlifting and even boxing, the latter specialty in which he was even the national flag bearer at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.”
The rest of the event participants wore wetsuits (“the norm in Chile”), while Aguirre and Youngman were the first to achieve this swim without neoprene since Rasmussan’s original swim.
Conditions were mostly hospitable, with temperatures ranging from 21-23 degrees Celsius. However, the two faced a headwind for the first three kilometers, which they reported produced, “short sharp waves coming at us”. Luckily, the lake flattened out after the sun rose higher into the sky and they enjoyed mostly calm conditions, with a view of Volcano Villarrica for the rest of the way. They completed the 22 Km route with times of 6:31.16 for Aguirre and 6:56.27 for Youngman.
Pacific Ocean: Viña del Mar Coast
Aguirre and Youngman’s next challenge was a shoreline swim along the Viña del Mar Coast, between Playa La Boca and Playa Caleta Abarca. Aguirre went to work on the complicated logistics, including communications with the Chilean Navy. Getting permission to swim following MSF rules, with no tow float or wetsuit proved challenging, given the ubiquitous use of these items in this area. From their documentation:
“Initially they gave us permission to swim in wetsuits towing buoys, but after more discussion they gave us permission to do the swim without these, as long as we had evacuation plans, ambulances on standby, would not stray more than 500m from the coast, had a jet-ski, paramedic, loud-speaker and boat.”
They’d originally planned the swim for February 5th, but the swim was postponed due to a devastating wildfire tearing through the area, destroying homes and leaving over 130 people dead. The swim took on an additional purpose to support the survivors of this tragedy. On February 27, 2024 they completed the swim, noting everything went as planned. Aguirre noted he became cold after a head current slowed their progress in the final 4 km.
Read their full documentation for Lago Villarrica here, and for Vina del Mar Coast here.
