“I was visiting my friend in Italy and he asked me if I wanted to be in his boat [as a member of his support team] when he swam the English Channel the following week.
“When we got there he had the most perfect conditions, there was a heatwave at the time and the water was so flat, I thought ‘I could do this’,” Hu said.
The swim from the south of England to the north of France in August 2022 was Hu’s first step in conquering the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming; three of the world’s most difficult open water swims.
On September 11, 2023, Hu became the first Hongkonger and only one of about 300 people to successfully swim the English Channel, around Manhattan Island in New York and the Catalina Channel, in California, thus completing the Triple Crown.
Hu, who works in arts and antiques, originally planned to swim the 20 Bridges in 2020, but it was cancelled because of Covid-19.
“I always wanted to swim around Manhattan Island because I used to live in New York and dreamed of jumping in on hot days,” she said.
She eventually got back into training and the swim was scheduled to go ahead in August 2022. She went to Europe earlier that month and could not turn down the opportunity to swim the English Channel, but the conditions “were not as good” as her friend had.
Hu said her swim started at 2am and the water was much colder than when she was supporting her friend a few days earlier.
“The water was really choppy but after a few hours the sun came up and it reinvigorated me and gave me the drive to keep going,” she said.
Hu completed the 21-mile swim in 12 hours and 36 minutes and just 10 days later, she was in New York swimming around the 20 Bridges.
The swim around the island was once notorious for being one of the dirtiest, with previous athletes finding everything from a dead chicken to a grapefruit and even a dead body.
“My dad got me some anti-parasitic medicine but I ended up not taking it because the water was surprisingly clean and flowing,” Hu said.
Also known as the 20 Bridges Swim, the track around the island is about 28.5 miles, the same distance as the route around Hong Kong Island, which Hu has also completed.
She finished the Manhattan Island swim in eight hours and 16 minutes.
“After I finished it within 10 days of each other, my friends were looking at the Triple Crown online and they told me that if I could swim the Catalina Channel within the next 18 days, I could break the world record for fastest completion of the Triple Crown,” she said.
Hu wrote to the swim’s organisers, but was told applications needed to be handed in 40 days before, and they were unwilling to bend the rules, despite world record being on the line.
However, the extra time to prepare for the 20 mile swim from Catalina Island to the California mainland, which began at 11pm on September 10, paid off.
“The Catalina Channel was the most difficult for me,” Hu said. “There was a constant current pushing against me and at one point my hands started to stiffen into a claw shape.”
It took her two hours longer than anticipated to complete the swim, finishing with a time of 14 hours and 33 minutes.
Born and raised in the United States to Chinese-born parents, Hu has lived in Hong Kong for the past 16 years and said it was the city’s open waters that made her fall in love with swimming again.
“When I was at school in California and during my childhood I was always swimming in pools, in competitions and taking summer classes,” she said.
“I just kind of got burned out from having what I call structured swimming, having a coach tell me what to do and swimming back and forth in the pool.”
Hu had never done any open water swimming before moving to the city in 2007, but taking part in a couple of short open water swim races led to her joining a swim group.
She was instantly hooked, and started checking off some of Hong Kong’s most famous swims, including the Shek O Challenge, the Clean Half solo and the Polson 5.
She even became the first woman to complete the Cold Half in 2016, a 15km swim starting at Stanley Main Beach and finishing at Victoria Recreation Club, Deep Water Bay, swimming in 16-18 degree waters.
Now, Hu has her sights set on the rest of the Oceans Seven – seven of the world’s most difficult swims – having already completed two of them in the Triple Crown.
“But I do not know when I will be able to do it, I’m nearly 50 now and I do not want my arms to fall off,” she said. “And flying around the world to finish these swims is really expensive.”
As well as the English Channel and the Catalina Channel, the Oceans Seven includes the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland; the Cook Strait between New Zealand’s North and South Islands; the Moloka’i Channel between Moloka’i and O’ahu; the Tsugaru Strait between the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido; and the Strait of Gibraltar.
Hu plans on doing the Strait of Gibraltar – swimming from Spain to Morocco – in 2024.
However, she said she does not think she looks like an athlete and wants to promote body positivity.
“I am not a skinny or muscular swimmer, I am not lean and I don’t look like a triathlete, I’m a little chubby, actually and this has helped me, I’m more buoyant and it keeps me warm,” she said.
“A lot of people think that because of their body shape, swimming isn’t for them, but actually it is very forgiving.”
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