Remembering Jon Erikson

evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
edited July 2014 in General Discussion
We are heartbroken at the loss of Jon Erikson, one of the greatest channel swimmers ever, and the first to complete an English Channel triple crossing. Jon was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame (distinct from our IMSHOF) this year, quite a rare honor for an open water swimmer.

Our deepest condolences to Jon's father and Forum member Ted Erikson @SdogV, and the rest of Jon's family.



Comments

  • JenAJenA Charter Member
    His accomplishments were truly inspiring. I am grateful for his influence on the open water swimming community.
  • loneswimmerloneswimmer IrelandCharter Member
    edited July 2014
    I never met Jon. And now I will never collect his autograph, something I'd always hoped to do. We are greatly saddened at his departure.

    I was at this open water swimming lark a couple of years before I heard of Ted, then of Jon. When I first heard "three-way English Channel", I thought I must have misheard, it could not be possible.

    Some years later, now knowing the Channel more intimately, in some ways I am even more profoundly moved by the achievement which in over three decades has only been accomplished three times. Jon crossed the English Channel eleven times, including two two-ways and was in his time the youngest ever Channel swimmer. He also broke his father's time for @svdog's famous Lake Michigan swim. It's a sad day.

    loneswimmer.com

  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited July 2014
    From the induction speech:

    Of the 11 times I crossed the Channel, I've swum it as fast as 8 hours 38 minutes, and as slow as 17 hours 50 minutes. And I can tell you that I was swimming stronger, faster, and harder, when I swam 17:50.
  • IronMikeIronMike Northern VirginiaCharter Member
    RIP.

    We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams

  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    A 1975 People magazine article about Jon's two-way EC, which broke his dad Ted's record by three minutes.

    http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20065608,00.html

    This was six years before the three-way.
  • edited August 2014
    Is there a thread to honor passed greats in general?

    I'm still new to the whole history of the sport. But this woman, seems to have been important to the zeitgeist of mature swimming.

    June Krauser Obit from the NYT

    I'll just say my thanks to her, not for me but for my father, who after retirement took up Masters Swimming and found new confidence and contentment in himself as a result. (this isn't meant to imply he was "One of the greats" but to illustrate June Krauser's contribution to people she never met.)
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited August 2014
  • Joe85213Joe85213 United StatesNew Member

    I can remeber Jon from swimming laps at Ridge Park pool when we were both 8 year old boys. We used to swim relays together and the mile swim at city meets in the mid to late 60s. At age 10 or so, he says to me while sitting in the water at the edge of the pool that he wanted to do something that no one else had done. His "idea" was to swim the English Channel. I think the idea really came from his father, Ted. I can remember Jon telling me that they would grease his body down with bearfat if he did the channel. When I was 12, in the summer of 1967, my family moved from Chicago and I lost contact with Jon until almost 45 years later and he said to me on the phone: "Do you remember....I told you I would do something no one else had every done." I congratulated him and told him: "I know Jon..You did it." Joe F.

    evmoBillyChambersSwimmersuzLakeBaggerOpenh2o
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