Rye resident Madison Walsh recently woke up second guessing herself.
“Is this crazy?” she asked her husband Kevin Walsh. “This” was Walsh’s idea to swim across the Long Island Sound in honor of her father who was diagnosed with melanoma, a life-threatening skin cancer, in 2024.
With her husband’s encouragement, Walsh dove into the Long Island Sound off Matinecock Point in Glen Cove. Though it was a beautiful, sunny Saturday, the water was choppy, and at first the mission seemed daunting. But she only needed five minutes to find her rhythm.
Two hours later, she emerged at the Coveleigh Club dock, greeted by a cheering crowd of 50 friends and family.
Walsh’s father, Wayne Lichliter, 73, kayaked next to her as she swam.
“My dad is one of those people who, when walking down the street, he would never just pass you,” she said. “He would stop and say hello.”
Her dad, a skilled kayaker, gave Walsh her passion for the water. Hailing from Memphis, Tenn., Walsh learned to love swimming at a young age (she even did her first triathlon at age eight). Her dad would bring her along on his kayak rides in the Mississippi River.
“I don’t know anyone who is not affected by cancer in some way,” said Walsh. “Moving your body, swimming, has always been such a gift to be able to do. Not everyone can just wake up and go for a swim.”
In training for her four-mile swim across the Sound, Walsh didn’t expect to find companionship.
“I ended up meeting someone literally in the middle of the Sound,” she said. “I had a 15-minute conversation while treading water!”
They discovered that their kids go to the same school, and that they are both members of Rye Presbyterian Church.
“I told him about my dad, and how I was trying to do this swim for my dad,” she said.
Walsh applied for a permit to Rye Town Park’s Open Water Swimming Program earlier this year. Once that program opened in June, she did one long swim and one open water swim a week to prepare. Her swimming eventually expanded to the U.S. Masters’ program in Larchmont.
Swimming has established “a connection to the community I didn’t have before,” she said. “In swimming at Rye Town Park … you see the same lifeguards every day …you get to know them.”
The real challenge for her was finding childcare for her five children, ages eight, six, four, and twins age two. After dropping her kids off at day camp at Coveleigh Club, Walsh would swim laps in the pool. Then she’d take her kids to Oakland Beach to play, drop them off at home for dinner, swim from 6 to 8 p.m. during open swim hours, and be back home after bedtime.
“Swimming is a time where I’m not answering to other people, it’s something I’m doing for myself,” she said. “I feel like I am going, going, going all the time, doing a lot for others. It is a joy and a privilege to be able to do those things, and I love doing those things…. When I start swimming, it’s all about the strokes or getting through the water. I’m not worried about other things.”
Walsh has also instilled a love of the water in her children.
For the last three years, she and her eldest, Emerson, have participated in the Swim Across America fundraiser at the Coveleigh pool. Inspired by Swim Across America’s mission to raise money for cancer research, Walsh began to investigate what it would take to swim across the Sound independently. She convinced a friend (a mom of four) to join Swim Across America’s July 26 swim across the Long Island Sound, an event that raised more than $1.9 million for cancer research.
Walsh was shocked by the reception she received for her swim –– including via Instagram messages asking about her training and even about the Sound itself.
“Being able to advocate for its conservation, its restoration, but also just advocate for people to enjoy it,” she said.
Walsh dreams of one day furthering her mission by increasing access to pools and working to teach more kids to swim.
It can be hard to find time to prioritize your passion, Walsh said, especially for busy moms of young children. But she knew that training for her swim would carry over into her life in other ways –– and show her kids how to pursue their own passions.
“It’s been a lesson for both them and for me … not necessarily knowing if you can do something or not, but just trying,” she said. “Being a mom has made me so much stronger than I could have ever imagined.”
Walsh is inspired by Dory’s message in “Finding Nemo”: “Just keep moving forward. Just keep swimming,” Dory said. “You don’t think you can swim a mile? Swim a 19th of a mile and keep going the next day. You’re capable of doing so much more than you think.”
