No one would have blamed Lori King, ’97 if she decided to throw in the towel during her record-breaking open water swim around Bermuda. Her torn rotator cuff, swollen tongue, and nose and throat raw from the unforgiving salt water were the least of her worries. King had to fight through the painful 36.5-mile swim a day earlier than planned, against 12-14 knot winds and two-to three foot waves to complete her uncertain and daring journey. Anyone would have understood if she decided to call it quits—especially her teammates, whose kayak flipped during the night portion of the swim. But that’s not what Explorers do.

And so King championed on, braving the harsh conditions and physical restraints, for a 21-hour open water swim that took her from Elbow Beach to Elbow Beach around the island of Bermuda, making her the second person to ever complete the swim, as well as the fastest and the first woman.

But as most journeys go, King’s began much differently. A Norristown, Pa. native, King came to La Salle as Lori Baiocchi in 1993, majoring in English literature with a biology minor. As a lover of the water from a young age, swimming breaststroke for La Salle was a no-brainer. “There are so many great memories from my time at La Salle and experiences traveling with my team,” King said.

King fondly remembers Philadelphia’s infamous ice storm of ’96 saying, “they actually closed down school for a week in anticipation. Everything was iced over. Myself and a few other swimmers were walking home from the library and we started sledding down the hill in our parkas.”

King enjoyed her days swimming at La Salle but decided to spend some time out of the pool after graduation. “Swimming at La Salle was pretty intense and I needed a break,” she explained. “I loved swimming, but I had done it my whole life.”

After graduation, she coached a summer swim club and went on to work at the National Board of Medical Examiners on the Standardized Patient Project which would act as a new step that medical students would have to take as part of graduating. After she met her husband, she moved to New York. From there, destiny unfolded in unexpected ways.

King found herself wanting to dive back into the water after seven years on dry land. “My desire to get back in started to become too strong for me to resist,” she said. “I was missing a very important part of myself. One day, I was walking past a YMCA and a little voice inside my head said, ‘it is time.’ So, I signed up that day.”

One of the friends King made at the YMCA was in a group that swam the ocean off the Hamptons and invited her to join. “One weekend, I took him up on his offer and I started swimming in the ocean. It was beautiful, different, fun, and scary— and I got hooked!”

King didn’t start competing in open water, though, until a few years later when someone mentioned an annual charity event held in Montauk, N.Y. called The Montauk Open Swim Challenge. “My group was all doing it and the proceeds went to raising funds for a community pool in Montauk, so I thought ‘why not?’”

The two-mile competition was thrilling and made her want to do more. She swam The Bermuda Round the Sound 10-kilometer swim, which is the equivalent to running a marathon.From there, she swam 20 kilometers around Key West and dedicated herself to complete the Catalina Channel. She also completed the 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim, a week-long swim that spans 120 miles. That was the race that she says changed her.

“It has taught me that my mind is stronger than I thought and while my emotions still remained soft, physically, I fought harder than I believed I could have and won those fights,” she said.

King began to set her sights on something bigger: a 24-hour swim. With her experience swimming in Bermuda and knowledge of the first and only other swimmer to complete the full Bermuda swim, King decided to give it a shot. “I read about Sean O’Connell’s swim in 1976 in 42 hours, so I knew it was possible, but hoped it wouldn’t take as long.”

It didn’t.

King began her swim at noon on June 15, 2016 and finished at 9:19 a.m. the following day, breaking records and raising the bar. Despite the many challenges King faced during her swim, she credits her team and her family with getting her through it. “I thought about what it would feel like to just give up and crawl on the board and what I would tell people, my family, and my kids. I had invested a great deal of training into this swim, so I kept reminding myself of that.”

Alongside her supportive husband, King says her family remains her priority. “My goal is to raise our kids to be confident and kind individuals,” she said. “I want them to be proud of me but also know that I am always there for them, not off swimming.”

But, King says, her days in the water aren’t over. “There will be other long swims,” she said. “But nothing will top this one. It was special for so many reasons.”

Photo contributed by Roseli Johnson