"THEY GAVE ME 1% CHANCE ON EVER WALKING AGAIN"

MOTIVATIONAL MONDAYS // KIM CHAMBERS

Nickname: Kiwi

Marathon open water swimmer (no wetsuit!) 

Website/Blog: www.kimswims.com

Instagram and Twitter: @kimberleyswims

What keeps you motivated to be active and healthy? Gratitude. In 2007 I was 30 minutes from the amputation of my right leg from the knee down. Once the surgeons saved my leg they gave me 1% chance of ever walking unassisted again. That was a pivotal moment in my life, and that drives me today. In all my years as a ballerina and rower at UC Berkeley, I never appreciated what my body could do for me. And in July 2007 I was facing the very real possibility of all that being taken away from me. I realized that I had two very distinct choices: 1.) Accept my fate as being disabled or 2.) Prove all the doctors and surgeons wrong. Although I had no idea how I would do it, I chose the latter. It took me two years to walk again, and in that journey of recovery I discovered swimming. I began swimming in October 2009 for the first time, and never looked back. Because of this experience, I am motivated everyday to be the very best version of myself mentally and physically. 

What is your favorite dryland workout?  Boxing.

What is your favorite water work out?  Long training swims in the SF Bay. 6 hour swims are my favorite. Just enough time to zone out in the water and get a good training session in, but also I still have the rest of the day to plan other things

What activities do you do in JOLYN? Open water swimming in the San Francisco Bay (no wetsuit ever) and pool swimming 

What's your favorite JOLYN color? Asphalt 

What's your favorite JOLYN style and why?  Solid Tie-Back Onesie. It just fits my body so well, and I love the tie at the back – super cute and feminine.

What is the craziest thing you have ever done? Jumped in the water at the Farallon Islands at night, known the highest concentration of Great White Sharks in the world to begin my solo swim from the islands the Golden Gate Bridge. But I  am a firm believer that the rewards far out way the risks; on August 8^th 2015, 17 hours 12 minutes after slipping into the inky black waters at the Farallon Islands, I became the first woman in history to complete that risky swim.

What would we find in your refrigerator right now? Kale, celery, garlic, ginger, carrots, yogurt, milk, butter, Kombucha and perhaps the odd can of beer.

If you had to be an animal, what would you be and why? A pinniped – either seal or seal lion. First of all I am jealous of their ability to move through the water, also they look like dog mermaids. I am somewhat of a non-age appropriate obsession with them.