Why Cold-Water Swimmers Warm Up on Rooibos: No Caffeine to Spike the Heart
The reason a caffeine-free cup earns a place in a marathon swimmer's cold-water fuel schedule, illustrated by Karen Kennedy's quadruple Robben Island crossing.
A hot drink you can sip for ten hours in cold water, with nothing in it to race your heart, is a specific and unusual thing, and it is why rooibos ends up on a marathon swimmer's fuel schedule where coffee or black tea would not. Rooibos carries no caffeine to spike a swimmer's heart rate, so a crew can hand up cup after warm cup on a set schedule for hydration and warmth without the stimulant load a caffeinated brew would add in the cold. Cape Town swimmer Karen Kennedy, 59, drank it mixed with honey throughout a roughly 10-hour quadruple Robben Island crossing this April, swum in skins, without a wetsuit, the South African Rooibos Council said.
Kennedy swam the roughly 30-kilometer route between Bloubergstrand and Robben Island four consecutive times, the council said. The achievement is pending ratification by Guinness World Records as the first and fastest by a woman in the skins category, the marathon-swimming rules that allow only a standard swimsuit, cap, and goggles in the cold Atlantic, no wetsuit.
The council said it jointly funded Kennedy's support boat with her swimming partner, Graham du Toit, and that her crew provisioned her with rooibos and honey on a set schedule through the swim. The pairing is a known one in South African open-water circles, where crews reach for it, often with honey or maltodextrin, on long cold swims, the council has said in earlier reporting on the sport.
Marthane Swart, the council's secretariat, called the swim "an extraordinary demonstration of resilience, discipline, and determination."
Kennedy was a provincial swimmer in her youth, stepped away from the sport for more than two decades, and returned to it in her early 40s after settling in Cape Town. "Dreams do not have an expiration date," she said. Of the swim itself, she said her approach was simple: "One crossing at a time. One stroke at a time."
Sources: SA Rooibos Council, "At Nearly 60, Karen Kennedy Proves Dreams Don't Expire"; News24, "TV, toast, rooibos: How 59-year-old Robben Island skins swimmer celebrated making history"; EWN, "Age is just a number: 59-Year-Old Karen Kennedy makes history with 30km quadruple Robben Island crossing"; IOL, "Karen Kennedy conquers quadruple Robben Island swim without a wetsuit".