Why We Swim

January 13, 2020
Journalist Tsui (American Chinatown) opens her eclectic, well-crafted survey with a fascinating story about an Icelandic fisherman who swam six kilometers in 41 degree water after his boat capsized. He survived thanks to a “biological quirk”—an unusually thick layer of body fat, more comparable to a seal’s than to the average human’s. From this starting point, Tsui looks at five different reasons swimming is important to humans, dedicating a section to each: survival, well-being, community, competition, and “flow” (the pursuit of the sublime). Characters like the opening chapter’s “real-life selkie”—a folkloric creature halfway between a human and a seal—and marathon swimmer Kim Chambers, who took up the sport after almost losing a leg to injury, appear throughout, along with scientific facts, personal stories, and social history. Tsui shares her own history as a swimmer, and swimming’s place in her family history—her parents’ Hollywood-worthy first meeting was at a Hong Kong swimming pool in 1968, she a “bikini-clad beauty,” he a “bronzed lifeguard.” In a chapter about the mindset of champion swimmers, she writes, “The view from within is what I’m after.” Her overarching question is about “our human relationship to water” and “how immersion can open our imaginations.” Readers will enjoy getting to know the people and the facts presented in this fascinating book.