Christine Coppola, a 49-year-old open-water swimmer and Coconut Grove Sailing Club member, will attempt to swim the English Channel between Wednesday, Aug. 19, and Wednesday, Aug. 26, chasing the final leg of the Triple Crown of open-water swimming.

If she completes the 21-mile crossing, Coppola will join a small club. Fewer than 400 swimmers worldwide had finished all three Triple Crown swims as of late 2025. She has already completed the Catalina Channel off California and the 20 Bridges Swim, a 28.5-mile circumnavigation of Manhattan Island.

This will be her second shot at the Channel. In 2025, bad weather scrubbed the entire two-week window and she never got in the water.

"I trained for a year. I went out there but the weather was terrible during the entire window so I sat there for basically two weeks and then had to come home," Coppola told the Coconut Grove Spotlight in a July 27 profile. "I'm going back for redemption."

Coppola, who lives in Shenandoah and works as vice president of human resources at NBCUniversal, trains at the Shenandoah Park pool on weekday mornings and does long-distance ocean swims on weekends in Miami and the Northeast. Photographer Patrick Farrell captured her training in Biscayne Bay just offshore from the Rickenbacker Causeway.

The Channel presents conditions far removed from South Florida. Water temperatures hover around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and Channel Swimming Association rules prohibit wetsuits or any neoprene. Coppola will swim in a bathing suit, goggles, and a swim cap. She estimates the crossing will take about 14 hours.

The attempt costs about $10,000, which she is funding herself.

Coppola grew up in Connecticut, started swimming at age 9, and moved to Miami in 2014. She returned to open-water swimming during the COVID-19 pandemic after pools closed. Her father, a basketball player who encouraged her love of sports, died from a COVID-related illness during the pandemic. She has described the sport as a way to honor his memory.

Her triathlon coach, Erinne Guthrie of Full Circle Coaching in Miami, told the Spotlight she is confident Coppola will finish. Co-captains Jennifer Samway and Kathryn Mikesell of the Dolphins & Rainbows open-water group in Miami Beach, where Coppola has trained since 2019, said they couldn't be prouder to support her.

Coppola's family are members of the Coconut Grove Sailing Club, where her 8-year-old son sails. The swim window opens Wednesday, Aug. 19, with Channel conditions determining the exact start date.