The University of Missouri men’s and women’s swim team will be participating as Team Mizzou in the inaugural Swim Across America St. Louis swim on August 27. The swim will feature a ½ mile, 1.2 mile and 2.4 swim at the Innsbrook Resort in Innsbrook, MO. Proceeds from the benefit swim will fund cancer research at the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis.
All 58 Mizzou swimmers are registered and so is Missouri Assistant Coach Mark Gangloff, a 2004 and 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist. The Mizzou swimmers will be participating as angel swimmers meaning they will offer encouragement and assistance to the SAA St. Louis swimmers. On his personal page, Gangloff shares he is swimming in honor of Ralph Crocker, an assistant coach at Auburn University, who passed away in 2007 from cancer. Team Mizzou has set a goal to raise $5,000 and as of today has generated $2,051 in donations.
SAA partners with nationally renowned cancer research institutions to host open water and pool benefit swims across the country. In 2015, SAA swims generated nearly $5M that was awarded to its research partners. SAA grants have played a major role in clinically developing FDA approved immunotherapy drugs Yervoy, Opdivo, Keytruda and Tecentriq as well as new treatments to early detect cancer.
More than 100 Olympians have supported SAA and we reported last month that Nathan Adrian will be swimming at SAA Seattle in honor of his Cal teammate Matt Benoit.
Swimming news release is courtesy of SAA.
Too little too late.
Awesome! Congrats and good luck!