Sports

Local 7th Grader Set for Chesapeake Bay Swim

Middle School student Jimmy Thomas is the youngest entrant in Sunday's Great Chesapeake Bay Bridge Swim.

When 7th grader Jimmy Thomas swims long distances, he often uses the time to think about what’s going on in his life, particularly at school.

Thomas should have more than enough time to think about school and then some on Sunday. The 12-year-old swimmer is participating in the 4.4-mile Great Chesapeake Bay Bridge Swim in Maryland, where his mom Amy is from, and is the youngest entrant in the race by three years.

Thomas found out he garnered a spot in the race through its lottery system in January and has been training in the San Francisco Bay with Water World Swim and in the pool with North Bay Aquatics ever since. 

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Sunday’s event is Thomas’ fifth open water swim. He has done the Tiburon Mile three times, the Alcatraz Swim in 2011 and the Golden Gate Bridge Swim last October. The Chesapeake Bay race is more than twice as long as any of those events, but Thomas is confident he can finish, according to his recent blog post about the event.

“It’s going to be hard work, but I will succeed,” he wrote.

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