MESA, Ariz. — On an 80-degree morning, a group of world-class swimmers stood in their Speedos and swim caps on a pebbly beach east of Phoenix.
They gathered on April 25 on the shore of Saguaro Lake to compete in the SCAR Swim, a four-day, 40-mile open water race across four lakes along the Salt River in Central Arizona: the Saguaro, Canyon, Apache and Roosevelt.
Kent Nicholas, the organizer of the event, doesn’t let just anyone participate. This year’s swimmers were in their 20s to late 60s, and each came with a résumé. The field included men and women who had swum successfully across the English Channel, Lake Tahoe, Monterey Bay, the Catalina Channel and around Manhattan.
The swimmers were jittery as they were divided into three heats and ferried on pontoon boats past a sign that warned, “Spillway doors may open without notice.” When that happened a year ago, athletes were forced to a sandbar to avoid being sucked backward. This year, conditions were perfect.
Through a megaphone, Nicholas, 56, ordered everyone off the boats and into the 55-degree water. Breathless from the shock of the cold, the competitors swam to a string of orange buoys in the shadow of a concrete dam.
While the world’s major channel associations forbid wet suits, and most ban smart watches,…
