Nine-Year-Old Sets Record: Swims ‘Aquatic Park to Alcatraz And Back’

On Tuesday, 9-year-old James Savage set a new record by swimming “from Aquatic Park to Alcatraz and back” in the icy waters of the San Francisco Bay.

In so doing he became the youngest person to ever complete the swim.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Savage and his family woke up at 3 a.m. to make the drive from Los Banos to San Francisco, and at 7 a.m. Savage and swim coach Josh Weinberger dove into the water. Although the most direct swim to Alcatraz and back is only three miles, the currents were so strong that Savage and Weinberger had to swim a four-mile route.

Savage prepared to break the record by swimming about 3 miles a day, every other day, for months. He also “[practiced] daily with his Los Banos Skimmers swim team,” the Chronicle notes. On the long practice swims every other day his swim coach would sometimes swim with him or his parents would “[follow] him in kayaks.”

The record for the youngest person to complete the swim was previously held by a 10-year-old from the area.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.