About

Swim Around Charleston

The 2025 event will take place on Sunday, Sept. 14 to take advantage of a favorable incoming tide. All race entries are due by Thursday, August 14, 2025.

This swim is a 12.5 mile open water swim in the Charleston waterways and harbor.  Check in and pre-race meeting will be held once again Saturday night. We will announce specifics with plenty of notice.

The swim will begin at Remleys Point in Mount Pleasant, SC, proceed across the Cooper River to the Charleston side, parallel the peninsular city and proceeding north up the Ashley River to the finish point at I-526. There is a Charleston county boat landing serving as the take out spot for swimmers.

The race start has been calculated for participant safety and to allow as many swimmers the best possible chance of finishing. Very fast swimmers may have to swim through the last of the outgoing tide in the Ashley river. There is a time limit of six hours to complete the event. Swimmers unable to finish in the allotted time will be removed from the water.

Swim Course

Click for large size.

Please see Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page for much more information!

About the race director:

Kathleen Wilson has been at the forefront of marathon swimming since 1997 with her first long swim around Key West.  Since that time she became the 13th swimmer in history to complete the Triple Crown of the Manhattan Island marathon swim, the English Channel and the Catalina Channel. Shortly after, she became the 1st female and 2nd overall in history to complete the Grand Slam ( Triple Crown events plus Tampa Bay marathon swim.)

In addition, Kathleen has completed the swims the length of Lake Zurich, Swim Across the (Long Island) Sound, Santa Barbara Channel, Strait of Gibraltar, Circumnavigation of the Charleston peninsula (16+ miles and a first), Lake Memphremagog, Molokai Channel, Charleston's Hwy. 41 bridge to I-526 Westmoreland Bridge, 25 miles and a first), North Dakota's Red River 36 mile event and the SCAR Arizona event comprising Saguaro, Canyon, Apache and Roosevelt lakes over four days, 41 miles. After significant shoulder surgeries in 2017 with many telling her to retire, Kathleen rehabbed intensively and in August, 2019 completed Bogue Sound, NC, 19.5 miles between the Cape Carteret and Morehead City bridges and more recently, a swim around Coronado Island in San Diego. Who else gets to SWIM by her daughter’s aircraft carrier? In May 30, 2022, Kathleen completed a rare double crossing of the Sea of Galilee, a 25.5 mile swim, to celebrate her 25th anniversary in marathon swimming. The last half mile was the exclamation point! This past year, 2023, brought a “short” 12.5 mile swim across the Oresund Strait, separating Denmark from Sweden. 2024 marked 50 years in swimming, the vast majority in marathon swimming. As a tribute to childhood roots, Kathleen returned to western Pennsylvania to complete the Three Rivers Marathon Swim, a 30 k total, broken into three, 10k’s in the three rivers of Pittsburgh. What a thrill to see these rivers reclaimed and swim-able.

2024 marks Kathleen’s 50th anniversary in competitive swimming with the past 27 years in marathon swimming. Hailing from western Pennsylvania, she went back to Pittsburgh where it all began and swam the Three Rivers Marathon swim, past all the remediated land and in the very rivers that were toxic to everything for decades. What a joy to swim in cleaner waters and see Pittsburgh, its skyline, its bridges and landmarks from the water!

She has been awarded the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina's highest civilian honor as well as a member of the Class of 2018 inducted into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame for her body of work as a marathon swimmer and introducing the sport of marathon swimming to South Carolina. When not running the Swim Around Charleston, she is often teaching her SwimCalm program, working with very fearful adults who wish to learn to swim and conquer their fear. She also maintains performing in various symphony orchestras as principal harpist, serves as adjunct instructor of harp at College of Charleston and Charleston Southern Univ, serves as the resident swim pro at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Wellness Center and while retired from three terms as a councilmember with the city of Charleston, now serves as Commissioner of Public Works, a most fitting job as she endeavors to keep water as inexpensive, safe and clean as possible.

Request More Info

Web design by NetTec NSI, LLC