The 20-kilometre swim bringing a Perth family back to where it all began

Competing in this year’s Rottnest Swim will be a full-circle moment for Nancy Shaw and her family.

It was at the Rottnest Hotel more than 20 years ago when Shaw first officially met her husband Jason after he had completed the swim, although their paths had crossed on previous occasions.

“I just finished an internship and qualified for the World Championships for Great Britain in the triathlon and it happened to be in New Zealand and Queenstown in 2003 in December,” Shaw said.

“Then my best friend from university was living in Perth, and she was like, ‘You need to come to Perth for Christmas’.

“I did a bit of coaching there, and ended up being a swimming teacher for about three months.

“And as part of that, there was the Rottnest Channel Swim, where I coached a couple of swimmers, along with another head coach, and we went over to Rottnest to kind of party, and that’s where I saw my husband.”

An accomplished triathlete and open-water swimmer, the love of the water was an immediate connection for Shaw, who said she had already spotted Jason at Challenge Stadium (now Perth HPC) prior to meeting at Rottnest.

“I had seen him a couple of weeks earlier at a water polo game,” she said.

“I saw him walk down the poolside, and I was like, ‘Oh, is that good’.

“When we went over to Rottnest, my water polo coach came up and said, ‘This guy’s been hassling me for your number.’

“He brought over Jason. And I was like, ‘Oh, my God, you’re kidding, it’s that guy from the swimming pool’.”

The call of the ocean and a shared competitive spirit led the pair to travel around Western Australia to take part in the many open-water swims available in the state, including the Albany Harbour, Denmark’s Green Pool and Matilda Bay.

Jason ended up moving to the UK to be with Shaw and the pair continued their love of swimming, travelling across Europe to take part in several competitions and even trying ice swimming in Poland, Finland, Switzerland and France.

Shaw completed her first Rottnest swim in 2006 and then a few months later fulfilled her dream of swimming the English Channel.

The competitive nature of their relationship even brought them to New York, where Shaw competed in the Manhattan Island Swim against a team of six men, including Jason.

“They called themselves the Nancy Boys, and it was me going solo, 48 kilometres, and a group of six guys and I think they beat me,” she said.

“They say it was by half an hour, but I think it was about 15 minutes.

“At one point I was beating them but then I got caught in a sewage plant and in some currents so they managed to overtake me.”

Next Saturday, the pair will compete in their first Rottnest Channel Swim as a family, with 16-year-old daughter Florence and 14-year-old son Dylan taking part in a team they have dubbed “Shaws2Shore”.

“The kids know that Jason and I have a very strong relationship, very loving and caring,” Shaw said.

“But also it’s very competitive in a tongue in cheek way.

“When it’s on the start line, it’s dog-eat-dog.”

However, when the family take to the water as a team, the competitive spirit will be reserved for those they are competing against.

“When you’re in a team that’s very different. You want to support each other, and, you know, be successful as a team,” Shaw said.

“It’ll be so incredibly special. And I think it’ll really be a dream come true for Jason and I being able to actually do the Rottnest Channel Swim with our family.”

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