Michelle Macy's Website and Blog

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – Michelle Macy's titles and accolades as a marathon swimmer are numerous.
 
Record holder – collegiate, national and international.
 
One of the Top 50 Most Adventurous Open Water Swimming Women.
 
Completer of the Oceans Seven, and creator of the Still Water Eight.
 
Now, the 1999 College of Saint Benedict graduate can add another title to her resume: hall of famer.
 
In March 2019, Macy is one of nine marathon swimmers from around the world being inducted in Melbourne, Australia, into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame.
 

"I don't think I ever really thought that it was a possibility to be inducted into any hall of fame, let alone this one," said Macy – a Chaska native who currently resides in Beaverton, Ore., and works as a business consultant for The Gunter Group in Portland. "I often feel like a small fish in a big pond when I think of the accomplishments of the swimmers in this community. Getting the phone call from (IMSHOF Chair) Ned Denison was amazing. Just being able to talk with him is incredible, as he is a pioneer in our sport, and I've looked up to him for a long time."
 
While Macy has grown a love for swimming in large bodies of water following graduation, she is anything but a small fish. She was the third person – and first American – to complete the Oceans Seven and swim all seven of the world's major channels, and set two records in the process. She is still one of just 13 swimmers from around the world to have completed the challenging list.
 
After leaving the CSB swim team following her junior season due to burnout, Macy took some time off from swimming. She picked the sport up again a handful of years later, then started her career again with two "shorter" swims (five miles and 8.2 miles) in 2006. Macy swam the first her of seven channels – the 21-mile English Channel – in 2007. She finished in 10 hours and two minutes, the fastest American for the Channel Swimming Association in 2007 and the second-fastest American overall.
 
From there, the races kept coming – and getting longer. She swam the Catalina Channel (21 miles) and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (28.5 miles) in 2008; the 120-kilometer Lake Taupo Triple Relay Crossing in New Zealand and the English Channel for a second time in 2009; the Cook Strait (19 miles) and the Kaieiwaho Channel Relay (72 miles) in Hawaii in 2010 and the Molokai Channel (26 miles) in 2011.
 
"I feel most at home when I'm attempting these marathon swims," Macy said. "They test my mental and physical fortitude, and at the same time fuel my spirit. I believe that is why I continue to return to the water and attempt new challenges. It's a chance for me to be literally part of something bigger and feel the power of the world.
 
"The ocean is not a normal medium for humans, and to spend even a few hours in it and realize that the world is so much bigger than you is just incredible."
 
In 2013, Macy was a nominee for the Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year award. In 2014 she set a pair of women's records – one at the 18-mile Jersey to France swim and a second at the 41-mile Round Jersey swim. She was injured in 2015 and 2016, but made the Top 50 list of Most Adventuresome Open Water Swimming Women in 2015. She became the first person to successful swim the Beagle Channel, a two-kilometer swim in water that is 44.6 degrees from Glacier Italia on Tierra del Fuego to Gordon Island, Chile, in 2017, and swam the Strait of Magellan in Chile in 58:13 to set the women's record.
 
Macy didn't start her swimming career competing in quite such long distances. At CSB, she earned All-American Honorable Mention accolades in the 500 freestyle in 1997 and again with the 200 freestyle relay in 1998. She is an eight-time MIAC champion and 18-time All-MIAC honoree, and still holds the school record in the 1,650 freestyle. She is also in the top five in school history in the 200, 500 and 1,000 free.
 
"I became a distance swimmer by accident in high school, and that carried me into the distance events at CSB," said, a Spanish and biology double major at CSB. "I think that being a distance swimmer is a love/hate relationship. In practice, you are grinding out long pace sets working to get faster at holding stronger paces. In the next lane, you have the sprinters doing short, fast sets with lots of rest. This can be difficult mentally.
 
"Thankfully at CSB, we had a small contingent of distance swimmers, so we helped each other get through the work and celebrate all the accomplishments. This is where the love came in. I could always count on those women to help me get through the grind."
 
While Macy's times and feats are impressive, they are not the sole focus of her swimming career. When she started telling people in 2007 that she was training to swim the English Channel, people started sending donations to help support her dream. She had already planned and budgeted for the swim, so she decided to give the donations from friends and family to a better cause. Six weeks earlier, Macy's mom had told the family she had breast cancer, so Macy gave the money to the University of Minnesota-Masonic Cancer Center. Not only would her mom receive treatment there, it was also where Macy first worked after graduating from Saint Benedict in 1999.
 
"It felt like the right partnership to be made, and that is when MacySwim for a Cure was started," she said.
 
That first year, Macy donated $1,250 to the cancer center, and it took nearly 10 years to reach her goal of raising $50,000 to donate. Along with her mother, her grandmother and several aunts had breast cancer, and on her blog, Macy says that raising money while she swims is a way to "honor my family and friends who are and have been courageous in their fight against breast cancer."
 
Macy's parents, Dr. Kathleen Pfarr Macy '70 and Thomas Macy, SJU '70, were part of her crew for her first swim across the English Channel in 2007, so while she says all swims are unique and it's hard to pick a favorite, having her mom and dad crewing for her made that swim extra special.
 
Macy's swims have taken her around the world, and she says that while she has competed in so many different swims in so many amazing places, she keeps finding new swims to add.
 
"I keep thinking that my bucket list of swims will get shorter, but every year I learn about some new swim or a new adventure, and the list gets longer and longer," she said. "You can probably name any continent or country, and I've probably got a list of swims there that I would like to attempt."