Portland Bridge Swim

Swim 11 Miles Through Downtown Portland

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12 Bridges

11 Miles

100 Swimmers

~ 70 Degrees

Welcome

Hello Bridge Swim friends!

It’s been a horrible couple of years. I hope you and your families have made it through this far and are safe & healthy.

We are cautiously optimistic that we will be able to hold the Bridge swim in 2022, and are putting plans in place to make that happen. Registration is now open and the site can be accessed here.

We will be watching conditions closely and may be forced to change our plans if cases rise to the point that our medical system is taxed, or if case counts & severity change significantly. While a swimming race would appear to allow for distancing, our safety crews are in close quarters on boats and in emergency situations. We are eager to have you all back with us, but we will not endanger our swimmers, volunteers or broader community.

If we are forced to cancel the event due to COVID, we will make sure to do it sooner rather than later and we will again do our best to refund as much money as possible.  The events of 2020 took us by surprise and we were forced to cancel after the race had sold out and after we had started incurring expenses that we couldn’t get back. We were able to refund 85% of the registration fees. This time around, we’re planning our finances with a clearer idea of what we’re dealing with.

I hope to see you on July 10, 2022. I may not get to hug you this year, but I’ll be grinning until my face hurts.  -Marisa.

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The Course

Start: Sellwood Riverfront Park
Finish: Cathedral Park

The Portland Bridge Swim course is approximately 11 miles (17 km) with the current. Swimmers will enter the water at Sellwood Riverfront Park (SE 7th Ave & Miller St, Portland), swim South under the Sellwood Bridge, pass around the bridge pylons and swim North along the East side of the river. The course runs under all 12 of Portland’s Willamette River bridges, through downtown and beyond. Swimmers will pass under the St. John’s bridge and exit the water via the boat ramp in Cathedral Park (N Edison & Pittsburg Ave, Portland).

Safety

The nuts and bolts of our safety plan: To ensure that entrants are capable of completing the swim safely, a qualifying swim will be required upon entry. Swimmers must show that they have completed a 5000 m or 5500 yd swim within 1 hour, 40 minutes. The swim can be in a pool or still (ie. no current assist) open water. Time must be verified by an observer but it does not have to be an organized swim. The number of entrants will be capped at 100 so that organizers can safely track swimmers. The Portland Bridge Swim will be held in the Willamette River. The Swim will begin at Sellwood …

see more about Safety

Registration

The 2022 race is scheduled for Sunday July 10, 2022.

Registration is open until 4:59 PM on Sunday July 3, 2022 and may be accessed here.