Channeling her potential  2013-02-20 12:37:36  Tina Neill is
already in exclusive company as a member of the small worldwide
community of top-level channel swimmers. She's truly in a class
all her own, however, in the respect that two of her signature
swims have been completed using only the backstroke, a highly
unusual undertaking in a sport that overwhelmingly favors
freestyle swimming.  "You have to train differently," Neill
says. "Most swimmers, especially fitness swimmers, don't like
being on their back because they can't see where they're going.
There's this fear, but for me it's just very comfortable."
Shortly after completing her first-ever freestyle swim of the
English Channel in 2003, Neill's swimming coach inquired if she
would ever attempt the feat again.  "I just blurted out, 'Yeah,
I'll do it backstroke," Neill said. "Two years later I did. I
guess it was meant to be."  Neill's 2005 time was not only a
world record for a backstroke crossing of the English Channel,
but according to, was faster t