Seth Baetzold Blogs His English Channel Swim

Courtesy: Seth Baetzold

The date was March 1st, 2013. I was swimming at the Minnesota State High School Championships in the 100 fly. Chasing the 1980 North High School butterfly record of 54.09.

I jumped into the water, not knowing if it would be my last swim race ever. Then finishing in 54.06, I broke the 33-year-old high school record. I was ecstatic. After this, I was still hungry for more swimming.

When I went to college, I didn’t know what my swim career would look like. I helped ramp up a small training group in the club swimming league.

One person I remember was my friend Adam Grimm. He was an older guy at open swim, cruising through lap after lap from beginning to end of the practice. He told me he was training for the English Channel 2015. I trained with him, doing long sets including 100x100s fast multiple times a week. After that, he went to England and swam the Channel in July 2015. He told me I should swim the channel. At the time, it was a dream.

At the end of college, I swam at the National Club Championship 2017 in Atlanta. I finished top of most events I swam. After graduating college, I didn’t know where my swimming would take me.

Breaking a few MN Masters state records, I looked to qualify for Speedo Sectionals (Zones), a meet I had always wanted to attend since I started swimming at age 11. I went to over a dozen swim meets from 2017 to 2018 to qualify for Speedo Sectionals. I finally did for the Pleasant Prairie 2018 sectionals and even finished top ten in 2 fly.

After that, I competed at the Crippen Cup 2018, competing against Haley Anderson and David Heron, U.S. National team members, and getting smoked in the 10k, finishing dead last in the men’s category. The next day, I did the 5K race. I also competed at the Minnesota Invite with D1 swimmers in November 2018.

After that, I was encouraged to try longer swims and found the 36-mile End Wet Swim race every June in North Dakota/Minnesota. I entered the race in 2019 and got 2nd. First place for the men’s category.

After this, I was ready to try ultra races and longer races, going to the 5k open water zones in Connecticut, and the 10k Swim to the Moon in Michigan.

I then swam the fastest times of my life at a Northwestern Club meet in January 2020, competing at the meet with Federico Burdisso.

As everything was shut down, I pondered my swimming career and missed racing. Many races were cancelled. I jumped in cold lakes until the water was warm enough to swim. It was the end of April before I could do open water workouts.

I decided to swim the English Channel, and started emailing boat captains and was in pursuit of finding 2022 Slot 4 on neap tide.

Then, coming back to the first race was the Charleston 12-mile in October 2020.

I had many struggles in completing the six-hour swim in 2022, including bad weather and two job losses.

But in 2025, I had my chance. First on the neap tide. I decided to raise money for the North Saint Paul, MN, food shelf. This is a cause that’s close to me, as I have raised money for them before. I got the call and got to the harbor. No water. I was told by the relay next to me that the water gets in 30 minutes.

We took off for Samphire Hoe. I applied Desitin and Vaseline to look like a ghost. I then swam to Samphire Hoe Beach and got on the rocky beach and cleared the water line, then heard the horn and started.

I started swimming 75-78 strokes per minute down the channel, stopping every 30 minutes. A few miles in, I saw jellyfish of all colors, some even stinging me, and I saw other channel swimmers and boats in the channel. Military ships, cargo boats, freighters. We dodged them.

Seven hours in, I saw France. I knew not to look up as I would drive myself crazy seeing the far cliffs not get closer.

My girlfriend live-streamed parts of the swim on Facebook for my family to see.

As I saw Cape Gris Nez, the last stretch came. Hearing stories of people failing this far out, I knew to keep swimming tough. No problem. As waves moved me. I saw the rocks beneath, and the captain, Harry, took out the raft.

I was told to either come ashore or climb a rock. As I got closer to the rock pile, I found a flat rock to get up on. As I raised my feet, I heard the horn from the captain, and I swam back to the raft. 11 hours and 23 minutes.

We then took a 2.5-hour boat ride back.

The end of a five-year journey has come.

I hope everyone can be inspired to try new activities that are daunting and challenging.