The Peter Pan Cup: An ice-cold Christmas Day swimming race
When I first speak to Alan Mitchell, 61, it is December 4. He has just got back from a morning dip in the Thames. âAbout five degrees,â he tells me. Mitchellâs the president of the Serpentine Swimming Club, and last swam in the Hyde Park lake the Saturday before. It was colder still: âTwo point three â itâs usually one or two degrees below the Thames.â
Mitchell is in training for December 25. Christmas Day marks the clubâs big event of the year, when its hardiest members compete for the Peter Pan Cup in a 100-yard race across the Serpentine, without a wetsuit.
The race has been swum every year since 1864, when the club was established, but Mitchell says that it may have begun before then. The prize is named after the lead character in JM Barrieâs childrenâs novel, and from 1903 to 1932, the author sponsored the competition and presented the cup to the victor.
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Competitors come from around the UK, and thereâs no upper age limit (one entrant is in his eighties). âIf you are lucky enough to win, you spend the rest of the day in a dream-like state, answering emails from people who have read the result in the most obscure newspapers,â says Mitchell. âOutside of an Olympic 100m final, no other swimming event attracts the same level of worldwide media attention.â
âIf you win, you spend the rest of the day in a dream-like stateâ
Contenders take part in a number of races throughout the winter to qualify â six or seven if theyâre newcomers â and although there is plenty