Tracy Clark is a New Zealander living in Norwich, UK.  Previously, she lived in the Netherlands for 11 years with her family.

During her time in the Netherlands, Tracy became involved in a women and childrens safe house and raised thousands of euros, including running the Amsterdam Marathon in 2008.  In 2010, Tracy was a finalist in the Netherlands Expat of the Year.  Sadly the safe house was closed down so Tracy turned her efforts to the modern day slavery charity Fairwork.  She again raised thousands of euros swimming the English Channel in 2013 for Fairwork and a breast cancer charity.

Tracy was awarded the trophy for ‘Swimming in the Most Arduous Conditions’ of the season by the Channel Swimming Association having tackled a force 6 wind (2 metre waves) during the last 4 hours of her swim. She was also honoured at the House of Lords in London in recognition of her fundraising for Breast Cancer Now.   In 2014 she was a finalist for the Fairwork Person of the Year Award.

Tearing her left bicep tendon during her English Channel swim, Tracy couldn’t swim for ten months.  Her next goal was training for a shorter challenge – the ice mile.  Tracy became the first person in the Netherlands to swim an ice mile in January 2015 in a temperature of 3.6 degrees Celsius.

Tracy has since completed the Gibraltar Strait (Spain to Morocco) in 2015 swimming tandem solo with fellow Channel swimmer Roger Finch from South Africa.  She also swam the Catalina Channel, California in 2015.  In February 2016 Tracy swam her first Robben Island to Cape Town in South Africa.  In August 2016 she circumnavigated the 28.5 miles around Manhattan Island which completed her Triple Crown of open water swimming (English and Catalina Channels and Manhattan Island) the first New Zealander to do so.

She has also crewed five world record swims across the English Channel and many more.

Future swims include the North Channel (Northern Ireland to Scotland) in September 2017 and many more Channels and Straits.

Tracy is now a qualified swim coach and holds a five day English Channel Swim Camp in Dover alongside Roger Finch twice a year.   They have also launched a Robben Island swim camp based in Cape Town.

Tracy is so passionate about this extreme sport.  She has had great success sharing her challenges as a guest speaker at corporate events, dinners, schools and charities. She also shares her knowledge by coaching others with like minded challenges.

Her belief is to never give up, dream big – and you’re never too old to achieve your dreams.