BALTIMORE, MD – Members of the Johns Hopkins men's and women's swimming teams recently participated at the annual Swim Across America Baltimore Pool Swim at Coppermine Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center.
 
The Blue Jays were the top fundraising team at this year's event, raising $13,633 and were one of just two teams to raise more than $10,000. The 2026 Baltimore Pool Swim raised $106,784 to support the Swim Across America Lab at Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.
 
Swim Across America began in 1987 with a charity relay swim across the Long Island Sound with the mission to raise money for cancer research. John Dierkes, a 1977 graduate of Johns Hopkins and a national champion swimmer for the Blue Jays, began participating in Swim Across America in 1999. Himself a cancer survivor, who also lost his wife to cancer, Dierkes created the Baltimore Swim in 2010 with another Masters Swimmer at Meadowbrook. He got then JHU head coach George Kennedy and the Blue Jay swimming teams involved and they have continued to support the annual event. In its first year, the Baltimore event raised over $465,000, making it the most successful inaugural event in the organization's history.
 
"I'm very proud to see the men's and women's team so involved, beginning with Coach Kennedy and continuing with Coach [Scott] Armstrong," said Dierkes. "We were so fortunate to bring the Kimmel Cancer Center on as a beneficiary in the beginning and to continue to support its research in the fight against cancer".  
 

In over three decades, Swim Across America has raised more than $150 million dollars that have led to breakthroughs in immunotherapy, gene therapy, personalized medicine and patient programs. The Swim Across America Lab at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Canter is one of nine named SAA research labs.