When she completed that swim between the New Norfolk Bridge to the Tasman Bridge on January 9 last year, Ms Norman was only the ninth person to do so.
She did it in a then record time of seven hours and four minutes.
Her time was bested two months later by John van Wisse who swam it in six hours and 49 minutes on March 8, but Ms Norman still holds the record for a female swimmer.
Not one to shy away from a challenge, especially when it comes to long distance swimming, Ms Norman then set herself a task to do it twice.
She publicly announced her intentions to tackle the swim on Wednesday.
She set a goal of completing the double in 16 hours (which was a finishing about 9.30pm last night), and was still in the water when the tfBannersc Pastoral Timestf$f went to print late yesterday.
‘‘The list of people who have completed a single leg is quite short, and no-one has ever attempted a double,’’ Ms Norman said.
‘‘COVID-19 has been really difficult, and because of that a lot of the international swims I had been planning were out of reach.
‘‘I started thinking ‘what fun can we have at home?’.
‘‘The Derwent swim is the longest in Australia, but it suits my style of swimming.
‘‘It is a river swim, so it is similar to my training ground in the Edward.
‘‘Although it is a tidal river, so it is also a little different.
‘‘There are three changes of tide because the river feeds in to the ocean.
‘‘I will start the swim when the tide is incoming and it should be outgoing by the time I reach the Tasman Bridge, which should mean it is incoming when I turn around and outgoing as I approach the New Norfolk Bridge again.’’
It was watching her training partner Richard Jones’ efforts through those tidal changes in January last year that started Ms Norman thinking a double crossing might be possible.
‘‘It will be all about timing (the tides),’’ she said on Wednesday.
‘‘There are a lot of things that could go wrong; because no-one has ever attempted this before there are a lot of unknowns.
‘‘But this does suit my swimming style and I feel more prepared for this than an ocean swim.
‘‘I don’t get seasick on river swims, so it should be a bit easier.’’
Ms Norman will be supported by two shifts of Sea Rescue Tasmania, with a changeover at the Tasman Bridge.
Her direct support crew will be Jones and Ava Richards — Ms Norman’s Deniliquin-based goddaughter.
‘‘I’ll have 40 minute feeds and, because I am on a keto diet which is all about high fat, I’ll be trying peanut butter mixed with a little bit of oil.
‘‘It is high energy and sticks well in the stomach.
‘‘I’ll be alternating that with electrolytes.’’
Ms Norman’s first long distance swimming attempt was the English Channel crossing in 2018, where she completed the 40km swim in 11 hours and 53 minutes.
She was the first person from Deniliquin to have ever made the crossing, and at the time had the fastest time for a female swimmer.
In the lead up to that crossing, Ms Norman founded Channel 4 Change — a local charity aimed at raising awareness of youth mental health, and funds for appropriate support and initiatives.
Every swim she has completed since has been under the auspices of the charity.
Her other swims to date are as follows:
● Catalina Channel (California, USA) – October 4, 2019, 32.3km in 10:36:18.
● Derwent River (Tasmania) – January 9, 2021, 34km in 7:04:00.
● Sydney Palm to Shelley (Sydney, Australia) – February 28, 2021, 24km in 11:17:39.
● Rottnest Channel Swim (Perth, Australia) – February 24, 2018, 19.7km in 06:03:48.
● Mentone Marathon Swim (Melbourne, Australia) – March 17, 2018, 10km in 02:51:47; and March 9, 2019, 10km in 02:48:00.
● Port to Pub (Perth, Australia) – March 20, 2020, 25km in 08:21:33.
Ms Norman’s completion of the Port to Pub, Palm to Shelley and Derwent earned her the Australian Triple Crown last year.
She is one of only seven Australians to have earned the triple crown to date.
More on Norman’s swim experience in Tuesday’s edition.
