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.

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