Imagine swimming 85 kilometres a week — roughly the distance between Sydney Harbour and Wollongong — and still finding the energy to fit in three brutal Brazilian jiu-jitsu sessions.
Olympian Kai Edwards, one of Australia’s best open water swimmers, wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Fighting to me is therapeutic,” Edwards said. “I’m max relaxed and the endorphins are high. It’s one big energy outlet.
“I try and do jiu-jitsu [Brazilian wrestling] about two or three times a week. You just go for it there with the boys. No matter how tired I am from swimming, I am happy to go and still hit the mats.”
Edwards, who once swam 25 kilometres through a South Korean typhoon and lived to tell the tale, is competing at the Australian Open Water Championships this week in Busselton in Western Australia, starting with the men’s 10km event on Wednesday.
Do well there, together with a solid performance at a World Cup event in Israel in March, and Edwards will book his spot on the Australian team for the World Championships in Fukuoka.
Open water swimmers who win a medal in Fukuoka automatically qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
While there are other avenues for Edwards to qualify for a second Olympics, it’s the easiest way to guarantee a spot in Paris.
The 24-year-old, who recently moved from the Gold Coast to Sydney, finished 12th at the Tokyo Olympics before taking a break from swimming.
“I really struggled after the Olympics with my mental health,” Edwards said. “When my coach Chris Nesbit moved to Carlile [in Sydney], by the time I had got out of quarantine, I didn’t know if I wanted to go back to swimming or not.
Australian open water swimmer Kai Edwards. Credit:Swimming Australia
“As I got my head right, the fire in the belly started to come back more and more. I can remember watching nationals and I wasn’t there. I thought, ‘I’ve got to be at the next one’. It got me all fired up.”
A misconception about open water swimmers is that they do most of their training in the ocean.
Instead, Edwards says he swims about 85km during a normal week in the pool.
That’s 1700 laps of an Olympic-sized pool every week, or the equivalent of 242 laps per day.
A training pool is certainly a lot safer than the ocean.
“I did an open water session a few years ago and I copped a mad stinger to my face,” Edwards said. “My face just blew up, it was brutal. Usually you try and swim through it. I got out this time. It wasn’t a bluebottle because my face was blowing up like a balloon.”
Asked about the wildest swim he has ever completed, Edwards nominated the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju when a typhoon caused havoc. Edwards finished fifth and took nearly five hours to finish the race.
“It was hectic,” said Edwards of the 25km event. “It was in some bay. It was howling, choppy winds. They put a jetski out there just so we could see where we were going. It was an absolute battle.
Kai Edwards competes in last year’s Duel in the Pool at Bondi Beach. Credit:Edwina Pickles
“I genuinely enjoy hurting myself in races. It’s like wrestling, I find it therapeutic afterwards. I like to think we train for 9km of the race and that last kilometre the dog just comes out. It’s who wants it more. I thrive on the battle.”
Even a backyard sauna with good mate and fellow Olympian Mack Horton can get Edwards’ competitive juices flowing.
“I was stirring Mack up recently,” Edwards said. “I said ‘who do you reckon can stay in the sauna the longest?’ I was trying to get competitive with him. He wasn’t really about it. I made sure I stayed in longer even though he didn’t want to make it a competition.”
While there is plenty of work to do, Edwards is confident he can get back to his best and make it to Paris.
“I thrive off the mentality that I’m the underdog,” Edwards said. “I’ve never lost that underdog mentality. I go in feeling like I’ve got something to prove and a chip on my shoulder. That’s why I do so well at these meets. I just see how much I can get out of myself.”
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