Charlotte Brynn

Charlotte Brynn grew up swimming in New Zealand's lakes and coastal waters. After moving to Vermont in 1998, she began exploring the Green River Reservoir. She became executive director of the Swimming Hole in Stowe in 2001 and entered an eight-mile Lake Champlain event in 2006. Open-water coaching and racing became part of the same working life. As New England's masters open-water chair, she helped host two national championships at Lake Willoughby.

The English Channel took her twelve years. Cold ended her 2012 attempt, seasickness interrupted another in 2015, and her crew stopped her 2016 swim within sight of France. In the intervening years she swam the Catalina Channel and around Manhattan. Her New England Hall of Fame profile also credits her with two ice miles and work developing endurance swimming at Lake Memphremagog.

On 17 August 2024, her sixth attempt brought her to France in 11 hours 43 minutes. Eddie Spelling piloted Anastasia, with Garry Salter observing. Crew chief Elaine Howley names Liz Fry as support swimmer and Janine Serell as crew. Brynn later described how the training swims had become objectives in their own right during the years she spent returning to Dover.