BUCKiT® #29-Kim Chambers: Ultramarathon Open Water Swimmer and Record Breaker

Racing to work, this record breaking ultra marathon swimmer, suddenly loses her footing and crashes down the stairs, smashing her right leg violently on the ceramic pot below. Her limb begins to blow up from the blunt force trauma and the swelling won’t stop as she is raced to the emergency room. Doctors must work feverishly to save her leg. They have only 30 minutes before they will need to amputate. What makes Kimberley Chambers story so remarkable is she was only minutes away from losing her leg 11 years ago after a horrific accident. Not only did she learn to walk again after her life literally came crashing down, but she took up swimming for the first time in her life and became a record breaking long distance swimmer. Kim is one of only a few people to complete the Ocean's Seven, a challenge consisting of seven open water channel crossings. One of the crossings includes the frigid North Channel waters, between Ireland and Scotland, where Kim was stung by 100’s of jellyfish and nearly died from hypothermia. In 2015, she became the first woman to swim from the Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge – a distance of approximately 30 miles, over 17 hours, in shark infested waters. Kim is about facing her fears head on, refusing to take no for an answer, and jumping in to the unknown at the very deep end, which for this marathon swimmer, literally means the ocean.