U.S. Water News Online
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- For Mimi Hughes, swimming isn't just a hobby or a way to get some exercise. She swims to change the world.
Ten years ago, the reading teacher from Tennessee swam from Alaska to Russia across the icy, treacherous waters of the Bering Strait to inspire peace between the countries.
She completed a five-year quest in 2003 to swim the entire Tennessee River to show what happens when herbicides, pesticides, litter and other pollutants end up in rivers and streams.
Last summer Hughes swam the Danube, and this year she will swim 500 miles down the Drava and Mura rivers in Eastern Europe to promote cleaner waterways. Her swim was set to begin in Austria, and she will swim through Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary before ending in Serbia on June 28.
"Change has to come from us -- because it certainly isn't likely to come top down," said the 51-year-old mother of four, who didn't begin to swim seriously until her early 30s.
During her latest swim, Hughes will make stops along the way to speak to groups and audiences about environmental responsibility.
Hughes, who lives in Taft, a small town on the Alabama state line about 95 miles south of Nashville, is a developmental reading teacher for college and high school students. She said she was inspired to motivate people after carrying the Olympic Torch in 1996.
"It's (swimming rivers) more effective than me staying home and complaining about it to my kids," Hughes quipped.
Hughes also considers this year's swim on the Drava and Mura rivers as a memorial to a recently deceased World Wildlife Fund employee who helped her during the Danube swim.
Hughes opposes dams built along the rivers because they destroy wetlands and fishermen depend on the rivers for their livelihood. Hydropower plants and gravel extraction along the Drava are also threats, she said.
Hughes says she's paid for much of the cost associated with the swims, but did receive a $10,000 grant from the Balance Bar food company which went toward food, hotels, airfare and publicizing her Danube swim.
She's also depended on the kindness of strangers. During her 90-day, 1,777-mile swim down the Danube, people along the river often offered her food and a place to stay, she said.
Hughes' daughter, 21-year-old Kelsey, also kept her going on her swims on the Danube and Tennessee rivers, paddling along next to her in a kayak to help her avoid litter and other debris in the rivers.
She said her toughest swim yet has been on the Danube because of whirlpools that would yank her under, the danger of hypothermia and swimming through untreated sewage and other pollutants in the river.
Hughes, who wears a wetsuit on all of her swims, said she can often smell pollutants in the water but can't usually see them.
"The hard part was having your face in the water for hours at a time," said Hughes, who spent an average of 6-8 hours in the water each day on the Danube.
Despite the dangers to her health, Hughes said she felt compelled to make the Danube swim partly because she believed a lot of people outside the U.S. didn't think the country cared about the environment.
"Absolutely everybody should be passionate about the environment. It's our life. If you truly care about people, then you're going to make sure they don't drink water that's going to harm them or breath air that's going to hurt them."
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