Bronxville’s Kiernan Breaks Record for Swimming Strait of Gibraltar

When Bronxville's Marilee Kiernan entered the Strait of Gibraltar in Tarifa, Spain at 8:04 a.m. on June 21, little did she know that 3 hours and 12 minutes later, she would arrive in Almansa Point, Morocco as the fastest woman to ever make the crossing in a wetsuit.

"To be honest, I wasn't really thinking about what I was about to do," Kiernan said. "I just jumped in and went. It seemed like it all happened so fast."

Fast indeed.

Kiernan, 22, is now the fastest American woman to ever swim the Strait and the second fastest woman overall. An Australian named Penelope Palfrey holds the record of 3 hours and 3 minutes (there are different records for wetsuit and non-wetsuit swims). Kiernan swam over 2.5 miles per hour to cover the nearly 9-mile crossing. She becomes the 388th person to complete the swim since Mercedes Gleitze (U.K.) first crossed in 1928, according to the Asociación Cruce a Nado del Estrecho de Gibraltar (ACNEG) or the Strait of Gibraltar Swimming Association

"I actually was not training with this particular swim in mind, but rather to cross the English Channel in August (which is twice the length of the Strait of Gibraltar) and thought that this would be a good practice swim," Kiernan said. "Despite swimming competitively for years, I've never been an open water swimmer, so I thought it would be good to get some experience before attempting to take on the Channel."

During the crossing, Kiernan was accompanied by two boats: one for navigation that had GPS and radios to coordinate with shipping and cargo traffic, and a smaller inflatable boat carrying her boyfriend, Jordan Sauer. At 30-minute intervals, Sauer passed Kiernan her "feedings," which consisted of water, Accelerade (a sports drink) and sport gel. But when it came time for the last feed, she was informed that she was on pace to break the world record and would lose time if she fed. 

"There was actually some miscommunication surrounding the arrival," Kiernan said. "Because of the rough tides and jagged rocks on the shore, the captain instructed me to swim only within five meters of the shore, but I misheard him and thought he said to stay only 5 minutes on shore, so I swam all the way in, promoting much shouting and chaos as the crew was worried that the waves were going to push me into the rocks. Luckily it all worked out fine."

Kiernan is a three-time high school All American and a New York State Champion in the breaststroke. She began swimming competitively at the age of five with the Badger Swim Club in Larchmont and joined the Bronxville High School Varsity team as a 7th grader, going on to win three New York State Section One Championships in the breaststroke and captaining the team her senior year. After graduating from Bronxville High School in 2005, Kiernan enrolled at Yale University, where she swam for the Bulldogs and was on the medley relay team that broke the Yale record. 

Kiernan comes from a long line of swimmers. Her grandmother and namesake, Marilee Stepan Wehman, won a bronze medal in the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, and her great-grandmother, Mary Louise Therese Quinn Stepan, was a U.S. National Champion in 1929. Kiernan's younger sister, Erin, swam for Princeton University.

For the past year, Kiernan has been pursuing a Master's in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the University of London and swam competitively for them, placing 8th at the British Short Course Nationals in the 50-meter breaststroke and receiving a "Full Purple" (the equivalent of a varsity letter) from the University of London.

Before attempting to cross the Strait, her mother, Mary Louise Kiernan, asked which bathing cap she planned to wear, Yale or Badger Swim Club.

Neither, she told her mother. She planned to wear the Stars and Stripes. Kiernan wore a USA silicone swim cap to cross the Strait.

"I gave it to the head of my crew after the swim," Kiernan said. "He asked me for a souvenir to commemorate the crossing."

On June 24, I conducted an email interview with Marilee Kiernan, who was in an Internet café in Tarifa, Spain.  The next day, she departed on a 9-day tour of Morocco.