Swims Like a Fish
23 May 2006
Add Braxton Bilbrey to the list of people who have conquered the waters surrounding Alcatraz Island. At just 7 years old, Bilbey swam the 1.4 miles in the freezing waters of from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park. He completed the swim in 47 minutes. His coach and two other adults swam the distance with him.
Bilbrey was reading a magazine story when inspiration hit him. It was a story about Johnny Wilson, the 9 years old, who swam the distance in October 2005. Bilbrey began training with his coach, Joe Zemaitis, who swam along with him.
Since Bilbrey is 2 years younger than Wilson, he holds the record for the youngest person to swim from Alcatraz. Now that Bilbrey has beat Alcatraz he’s thinking of new waters to swim. Next on his list…the English channel.
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