Child Swims From Alcatraz

TheMilwaukeeChannel.com: PHOENIX – A 7-year-old boy has become one of the youngest — if not the youngest — person to swim from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco’s Aquatic Park.

Braxton Bilbrey is a second-grader from Arizona who has completed several short-scale youth triathlons. Bilbrey was accompanied on the estimated 1.4 mile swim by his coach, two other swimmers and a Coast Guard boat.

As he reached shore, Braxton was besieged by reporters. He told them he considered his accomplishment “pretty cool.”

Asked what the hardest part was, he replied: “The swimming.”

Asked if the strong current was a problem, he said: “Not really.”

And asked about being a “brave little boy,” Braxton responded: “I think I am.”

The 7-year-old says he got the idea to swim from Alcatraz when he saw a magazine story about a 9-year-old boy who made the swim.

Braxton has been training two hours a day, four times a week. He also made training swims in several Arizona lakes and made a trip to the San Francisco Bay last month.

Braxton said he hopes to raise awareness and money for drowning prevention.