On Sept. 21, the Hopkins swim team participated in the Swim Across America (SAA) event in Baltimore to raise money for cancer research at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Medicine. They attend this event annually, as it allows them to make waves to support a good cause that is especially meaningful since they are able to support a Hopkins-associated initiative.
In an interview with The News-Letter, Hopkins swim team junior Carly White talked about the team’s experience at SAA.
“It is kind of our first get-together as a team every year, so it’s really exicting, especially for the freshmen. We do 45 minutes to an hour of just fun relays,” she said. “We’ll do a fun t-shirt relay, an underwater relay, [and] we do one every year called a banana relay.”
In the “banana relay," each swimmer has to eat a banana as fast as possible and immediately sprint 50 meters. Swimming can often be portrayed as an individualized sport, as the athletes typically compete in their specialized events at meets. However, relays allow individual racing efforts to be combined, rallying high energy and excitement, while also exemplifying team unity.
Moreover, instead of competing against other university swimmers, the Hopkins swim team itself was split into different teams to compete against each other. This enforced a sense of friendly competition, but ultimately fostered team bonding.
Men’s swim team sophomore Dylan Jewett told The News-Letter in an email why he enjoys attending SAA and how the event speaks to him.
“It was nice to see the team coming together to achieve a common goal,” Jewett recounted. “It’s also fun to see how competitive and animated meaningless relays can make a team, when we’re all brought together and placed on arbitrary teams.”
Jewett also elaborated that although this may be a classic annual event, every year is still a different experience and memorable for its own reasons.
“We had a lot of fun doing different relays than we did last year and switching the teams up to keep things fresh year by year,” Jewett said.
White further explained that SAA events are not limited to being hosted by local pools and that swimmers do have the option to participate in other types of SAA events.
“You can do an open water swim [...] or you can do it in a pool. [...] We did it at a local pool with the rest of the Baltimore community, and through the registration, you pay money to swim with everyone, and then you also raise money through an account,” she said.
Jewett shared that the Hopkins swim team successfully raised a total of $7,763. Nevertheless, fundraising does not necessarily have to end there, as White mentioned how individuals are more than welcome to donate on the website directly and make their own fundraising page whenever they would like, as SAA fundraising events are inclusive to all.
“People of all ages go: There will be toddlers there and older people there,” White detailed. “Also, in Baltimore, for example, there [were] three or four universities, and I think a club team was there too.”
The Hopkins swimming team may have chosen to do relays, but that is not the only option, and many participants end up swimming laps instead. Ultimately, neither the stroke, distance nor speed of swimming is the highlight of the event, but rather the united team spirit of participants of all different levels coming together to do a sport they love while supporting a charitable cause.
“I think it makes me realize how much of a community we have, not only in Baltimore, but also nationwide,” White explained. “There's an Instagram account, so I keep up with them, and huge [Division I] schools will do the same thing with the same people — all of the high schools and all the colleges in that state will get together and do an open water swim or [something].”
Aside from the swimming itself, participants are given merchandise such as a swim cap and a t-shirt, and they have the opportunity to learn from speakers about how their swimming is making a difference. White elaborated on this in her interview with The News-Letter.
“Before the event actually starts, there'll be a few guest speakers, [such as] cancer survivors who speak about their experience and how far they’ve come through this research,” White said. “In particular, Hopkins has gotten a lot of funding for research, so we play a huge role in that, and to see that actually affect people positively around the country is really awesome. It makes you think like this tiny thing that we're doing is actually making a huge impact.”
All in all, the 2025 SAA event in Baltimore was a success, but the swimming and fundraising does not stop there. The swim team is continuing to train in preparation for the season ahead of them and SAA continues to offer various swimming events year round to expand their fundraising efforts.
