Clinton Township Woman's Team Swims English Channel in World Record Time

While the world watched the opening of the 2012 London Olympics, six Ann Arbor women, including a Clinton Township native, were achieving their own feat across the pond – breaking the world record for swimming the English Channel.

Amanda Mercer, Bethany Williston, Jenny Sutton Jalet, Emily Kreger, Susan Butcher and Melissa Karjala swam the English Channel from England to France and back in 18 hours and 55 minutes, four minutes better than the time previously recorded by a team from Mexico, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Mercer, who is originally from Clinton Township, and her team were inspired to swim the Channel not for athletic glory, but to raise money and awareness of Lou Gehrig's disease, by which all had been touched.

Braving frigid water and often dangerous conditions, the six swam 42 miles in just over 24 hours, wearing nothing but normal swimsuits, caps and goggles, per competition regulations.

Mercer, 44, swam three hour-long legs of the relay, including the second to last. While she faced the same hazards as her teammates, she had the added obstacle of having finished her last round of chemotherapy just two weeks before the start of the swim, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Diagnosed with breast cancer, Mercer underwent surgery in March followed by months of chemotherapy. While she told the Detroit Free Press, "Getting back in that water (for the third leg) was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life," Mercer said it was the thought of friend and University of Michigan professor Bob Schoeni, was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's, that gave her the strength to continue.

The team finished the swim and broke the world record on July 27. They are still working to raise $120,000 in donations for Lou Gehrig's research.