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Wild Childhood Dream – Impressive Adult Achievement!

April 21, 2023

Nikko Price, from Branford, CT, has been participating in the Swim Across the Sound Marathon for three years now. This annual event, a 15.5-mile swim from Port Jefferson, NY, to Captain’s Cove in Bridgeport, CT, is a huge commitment. It takes training, money, time and discipline. So, what keeps Nikko coming back for more?

Nikko sums it up beautifully. “It’s the thrill that comes from doing something I love, in water I love, for people I love.”

No stranger to swimming, or to the Sound, Nikko spent his childhood exploring the coves of Long Island Sound on the New York side. “I remember looking across at the barely visible coastline of Connecticut and wondering, can I swim there?” Nikko recalls. “Swim Across the Sound convinced me not only that I could, but also that I should.”

Nikko’s passion for swimming would soon merge with a very personal challenge. “Cancer has taken too many members of my family, and countless members of so many families. Swim Across the Sound gives purpose to my wild childhood dream — and raises funds that can make a real difference for those struggling with a cancer diagnosis.” Nikko is swimming in honor of his grandmother, a thirty-year breast cancer survivor who passed away last August.

Last year, Nikko was the first solo swimmer to cross the finish line in just under seven hours.

“As a solo swimmer, my view of the Swim Across the Sound is from water-level, usually through the foggy lenses of not-so-watertight goggles,” Nikko explains. “But what I see, year after year, is the same: A literal armada of volunteers, on the water and off, marshaling me and dozens of others across the Sound for no other reason than it’s the sort of thing that selfless people do.”