Data for Becoming a Channel swimmer : embodiment and identity in an extreme sporting culture

It is not possible to complete the swim successfully without rigorous training, often over several years; it is a body project which requires the purposeful development of a wide range of embodied techniques, knowledges and practices, including efficient stroke technique, endurance, acclimatisation to cold water, in-water nutrition and psychological strategies for coping with the sensory deprivations and physical discomforts of marathon swimming.

Drawing on auto-ethnographic data on the researcher's own training, and the ethnographic study of the community and wider context within which training takes place, this research aims to explore the development of the techniques, knowledges and practices necessary to the process of becoming a Channel swimmer; the body pedagogics involved in the acquisition, embodiment and transfer of those techniques; and the identity production at work in those processes.