In Wake of Crippen Tragedy, New South Wales' Open Water Technical Committee Develops Water Temperature Policy

The Open Water Technical Committee for the Australian state of New South Wales has developed a new Water Temperature Policy that will govern all of it’s open water races. This policy is the latest, and thus far the most aggressive, action taken in the wake of the death of American open water swimmer Fran Crippen. It is widely held, though not officially confirmed, that water temperature played a significant role in his death. Swimming NSW also hopes that this policy can serve as a blueprint for larger organizations like FINA, who have been dragging their feet in coming to their own conclusions.

FINA has long applied a required minimum temperature for open water swimming, which previously stood at 16ºC (60.8°F) and 18ºC (64.4°F), but until the tragedy in October, had never before established a maximum temperature.

The policy is as follows:

In a layman’s interpretation of the rules, a maximum water temperature is set at 89 degrees. When the water is above 84 degrees, and the air is more than 9 degrees hotter, the race is postponed until the air temperature decreases by at least 2 degrees. These rules apply to all races of all distances. Additionally, whenever the water temperature exceeds 84 degrees (29 C), feeding stations will be permitted superseding any other rules that would not permit them.

There were also certain rules that were specific to different distances. In 10k or longer races, the race distance will be reduced by 2.5k for every degree (celcius) above 29º C the water is, assuming the air is at least 3º C warmer than the water. This is up to a maximum of cutting the race in half, at which point it will be rescheduled.

A key to these rules is that they take into account both the water and ambient air temperatures, as both are equally critical in determining the safety of the swimmers.

The committee came to the conclusions after consulting several scientific publications, including the FINA Open Water Swimming Rules, the Guidelines for Managing Risks in Recreational Water dreated by the Australian Government, the National Health and Medical Research Council documents of February 2008 (Section 4), and the Physiology of thermoregulation during swimming by Neilsen, B. (1977) in Swimming Medicine IV – Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress on Swimming Medicine by B. Eriksson & B. Furberg, University Park Press.

This is an excellent and positive step towards making an already dangerous sport, due to its physical nature, that much safer. Given that it appears, based on the sources used, that there has already been extensive scientific work done on the subject, it’s hopeful that FINA won’t have to reinvent the wheel when developing it’s own safety regulations.