Berwyn resident completes ‘triple crown’ of open-water swimming

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    Anthony McCarley is now a “triple crowner.”

    The resident of Berwyn, Pennsylvania, is the 93rd open-water swimmer in history to swim the English Channel, circle Manhattan, and make the trip from Santa Catalina Island to the California mainland.

    “It was a real sense of accomplishment that kind of rolled over me,” he said of completing the trio of events.

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    Open-water swimming takes place in large, open bodies of water including oceans.

    But McCarley got into the sport almost by accident, after giving in to a persistent childhood dream.

    “When I was a little boy, I don’t know why but I just had this drive to swim the English Channel,” he said.

    One day, at age 49, the health care IT executive woke up and decided right then to make his foray into open-water swimming. He hasn’t looked back since, despite falling short on his first English Channel swim just a half mile from France.

    “It’s a healthy addiction,” McCarley said, adding that it’s helped him branch out athletically as well as socially.

    “It really is a great community of worldwide people,” he said. “I have friends all over the world now.”

    The now-54-year-old McCarley shows no signs of slowing down, saying that open-water swimming is especially beneficial to him at this point in his life.

    “I think being in shape and doing this actually makes me a better father in a lot of ways, because I can keep up.”

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