1-Mile Swim 2024 Open Recap

The 1-Mile Swim 2024 Open, which took place August 8–14, 2024, welcomed many new donor athletes to the Donor Games family and saw some amazing performances by recipients and donors alike.

The transplant recipient category was particularly competitive, demonstrating that recipients can compete at a very high level after transplant. The fastest time (21:03) across all competitors was achieved by Abigail Beckman-Green in the Transplant Recipient Women’s category. No competitor has come close to Abigail’s time in this event. Abigail lives in Indiana, is 35, and received her transplant in August 2016.

Leo Draham, a liver transplant recipient who is in his rookie season competing in Donor Games Open events, not only took the Transplant Recipient Men’s category with a time of 26:27, he also achieved the second-fastest time for all men competing in the swim event.

Sydney McGuire, also a liver transplant recipient, competed at 27 weeks pregnant, coming in second in the Transplant Recipient Women category with a time of 37:26.

The donor athletes dramatically improved their times this year. David Bodger, the first international Donor Games competitor, took the Donor Men category with a blazing time of 24:34, besting last year’s Donor Men record by 58 seconds. That record was held by Jon Sullenberger, who came in third in the Donor Men category this year with a time of 26:40. Brandon Cullen, another athlete in his rookie season, rounded out the top three in the category, taking second place with a time of 26:32. Notably, half of the men in the top 10 were 55+ years old including 3 of the top 5 finishers.

Courtney Cox once again took the top spot in the Donor Women category, beating her 2023 record by an astounding 1 minute and 30 seconds with a time of 23:44. Two new competitors in the Donor Women category made the podium: Catherine Madden took second place with a time of 24:57 and Britta Kolodziej edged out Sophia Goode for third place with a time of 26:52.

Along with some incredible performances and two new records, the event saw a huge increase in donor registrations. Registrations doubled this year to 56 total registrants, more than half (32) were new to the Donor Games in 2024, and for 19 of them, the 1-Mile Swim 2024 Open was their first Donor Games competition.

Final Leaderboard

Living Donor: Men
Rank	Participant	Age	State	Time	Video
1	David Bodger	57	INTL	24:34
2	Brandon Cullen	25	NY	26:32
3	Jon Sullenberger	62	WA	26:40
4	Chris Sullivan	55	CO	27:21
5	Miguel Munoz	30	TX	28:08
6	David Leckrone	60	VA	28:46
7	Anonymous Donor	45	ME	30:10
8	Zachary Sutton	44	SC	30:20
9	Garet Hil	61	CT	30:57
10	William Henninger	42	IA	31:40
11	David Ashley	50	WV	35:46
12	Jason Elmore	43	TX	37:12
13	Mike Ramsey	51	WI	50:11
	Cornelius Bornman	47	MI
	Robert Hiller	72	OH
	Steve Holmes	53	PA
	Kevin Kilkenny	54	NY
	Justin King	46	AL
	Mark Murray	35	PA
	Thomas O’Driscoll	60	TX
	Jeffrey Woford	58	AR

Living Donor: Women
Rank	Participant	Age	State	Time	Video
1	Courtney Cox	40	MO	23:44
2	Catherine Madden	39	CA	24:57
3	Britta Kolodziej	38	MN	26:52
4	Sophia Goode	54	WA	27:03
5	Elaine Vigneault	48	NV	28:13
6	Emmy Spencer Probasco	44	MD	29:31
7	Sibley Brown	31	AZ	30:17
8	Nicole Cheslock	51	CA	30:40
9	Mimi Mahon	36	OH	30:44
10	Kristi Martinez	35	CA	30:53
11	Laura Diaz Moore	57	UT	31:50
12	Elizabeth Young	45	CO	35:02
13	Janet Walker	40	NY	39:18
14	Amy Baldyga	45	CT	40:00
15	Andrea Alejandro	44	TX	43:14
16	Nicole Birkett-Brunkhorst	39	MO	43:46
	Louise Bailey	67	TX
	Joyce Collier	41	NY
	Molly Cropp	44	CO
	Nicole Giggie	38	MA
	Lindsay Gutierrez	41	MD
	Sarah Hawkins	41	CA
	McKenzie Hull	34	OH
	Emily Polet-Monterosso	37	MI	1:07:31*
	Tina Stewart	51	MI
	Radley West	52	SC
	Jaimie Wetmore Morrison	43	NJ

Transplant Recipient: Men
Rank	Participant	Age	State	Time	Video
1	Leo Draham	35	PA	26:27
2	Scott Claybrook	42	AL	31:43
3	Wilson Du	42	CA	51:42
	Joe Curry	25	NY
	Luis Suarez	32	AZ

Transplant Recipient: Women
Rank	Participant	Age	State	Time	Video
1	Abigail Beckman-Green	35	IN	21:03
2	Sydney McGuire	24	OK	37:26
	Samantha Hil	28	CT
	Bridget Hargot-Ramsey	49	WI