Wright State alum celebrates 50th birthday while swimming the English Channel

Wright State MBA graduate Amy Wamsley fulfilled a childhood dream by swimming the English Channel last summer.

A 50th birthday is often marked with special parties and gifts. But Wright State University alum Amy Wamsley’s 50th birthday was extra special. She celebrated her milestone birthday in the middle of a grueling swim across the English Channel, a feat achieved by fewer than 3,000 people since 1875.

The birthday was coincidental, but the swim certainly was not. It was the result of a childhood dream and 15 months of intensive training.

Wamsley, who earned an MBA with concentrations in management and project management from Wright State in 2005, entered the water off Dover, England, around 1 a.m. local time on June 13. Nearly 17 hours later, she made her way to a beach in France, covering more than 25 miles.

The Yellow Springs resident was accompanied on the swim by a piloted small boat carrying two friends for medical and moral support and a crew member who provided her nutrition throughout the swim.

Rules of the swim, overseen by the Channel Swimming Association, required Wamsley to stay about 16 feet from the boat, and no one was to touch her for the duration, until she stepped onto dry land in France.

“I first dreamed of swimming the English Channel when I was 12,” Wamsley said. “I came across a magazine article about swimmers who completed the challenge. At the time, I was a competitive swimmer, and I remember thinking, ‘If they can do it, so can I.’”

Over the years, Wamsley built a career in the nonprofit sector, specializing in human resources. She earned a certification from the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance and continued to pursue her passion for swimming.

In January 2024, she decided to fully commit to her swimming journey. After reaching a crossroads between pursuing new employment or continuing her training, she chose to follow her dream. That choice led her to take the more challenging path, dedicating herself to training while launching her nonprofit, Amy’s SwimVenture, and Variegated Solutions, LLC, which provides strategic HR and business consulting services.

So Wamsley dived in, so to speak. She trained locally, in Chicago and the San Francisco Bay, which, she said, is considered by experts to have conditions similar to the Channel. She raised funds to support her effort through her nonprofit and events organized by friends in Yellow Springs.

Wamsley also used the swim to raise awareness about two key issues: water conservation and defying stereotypes about body image and aging in women.

“I don’t look like someone who’s going to swim the English Channel,” Wamsely said. “It doesn’t matter what our bodies look like. We can still encourage each other to succeed in whatever it is in life that we want to succeed in.”

Swimming the Channel was physically and mentally demanding. Wamsley said she smelled and tasted what seemed to be fuel early in the swim, which, along with motion sickness, caused her to vomit. After taking medication, she settled into a freestyle rhythm and stayed focused for the remainder of the 16-hour, 56-minute, and 40-second journey.

In addition to training to swim the English Channel, Amy Wamsley launched a nonprofit, Amy’s SwimVenture, which focuses on water conservation and defying stereotypes about body image and aging in women, and Variegated Solutions, LLC, which provides strategic HR and business consulting services.

About halfway through the swim, her friends hung a “Happy Birthday” sign on the boat, a moment she called “a rejuvenation.”

As she neared a French beach, fatigue set in.

“I was exhausted, but my body wasn’t sore,” she said. “I knew I was prepared. I had to dig deep, but I knew I could do this.”

As she rose from the water to make her way to the beach, a surfer approached her to offer help. “I told him not to touch me or I would be disqualified,” she said.

Fulfilling the rules of the swim, she then boarded the boat to return to Dover.

Wamsley isn’t done swimming yet. In September, she was one of 500 swimmers selected to take part in the first organized swim down the Chicago River in nearly a century, an event made possible after improvements in water quality. Participants raised funds to support ALS research and swim lessons for Chicago youth.

She also plans to swim all 16 of Ohio’s designated scenic rivers to raise awareness about water quality, in collaboration with local stream conservation groups, and continue promoting positive body image.

She was recently honored by the State of Ohio for superb achievement and recognized as a superior athlete and an exemplary Ohioan for crossing the channel.

Wamsley said much has happened to her in the past year: “I got laid off. My father died, I started an LLC and the nonprofit. And I’m still here. Every once in a while, I cry. I did it.”