Swimming challenge being held at Mon Valley YMCA

By TAYLOR BROWN

tbrown@yourmvi.com

Local residents are swimming laps at the Mon Valley YMCA to show how “knotty” they can be, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aquatics Director Amy Dunay will celebrate her 10th anniversary with the YMCA this year, and seeing the success of a new challenge for swimmers has proven to be the perfect gift. 

Each winter for the past several years, Dunay has come up with creative long- distance swim challenges for members. 

This year, she challenged them to be “knotty” to show how far they can swim in eight weeks. 

The challenge, which varies from year to year, serves as a fundraiser for the pool area of the facility and rewards members for their effort in the friendly competition. 

Swimmers will keep track of their laps on an honors system and will receive a knot on a rope hung in the Aquatics Wall in the pool area. 

“Usually around this time of year I come up with some kind of crazy idea, some type of long-distance challenge,” Dunay said. “This year, we are tracking nautical knots.”

Usually, the challenge attracts about 13 people, but this year participation has doubled. 

Youth swim team members and older residents are involved. 

“It has been nice because we have people who come to the pool to swim their regular laps,” Dunay said, “but with the challenge it has brought people in more frequently than they might usually come and pushes them to do their personal best.” 

The challenge, which is more about self accomplishment than winning a prize, started Feb. 1 and will run through the first week in April. 

“This year, we decided to not put an end to the challenge with a prize, and instead are counting on people to do their personal best,” she said. “This about giving them something to shoot for. Often times, when you see something being tracked, you want to push yourself to beat your personal best.” 

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