Nation’s Largest Swim Across America Event Will Honor Recently Retired Providence College Coach and Event Co-Founder John O’Neill; Proceeds Support Cancer Research at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island

Swim Across America, the national nonprofit that makes waves to fight cancer through charity swims across the U.S., will host the 17th annual Swim Across America – Rhode Island Open Water Swim on Saturday, Sept. 12, at Roger Wheeler State Beach, 100 Sand Hill Cove Road, in Narragansett. The event offers a quarter-mile, half-mile or 1-mile open water swim, plus the Kids Splash & Dash. Swimmer registration has reached capacity and closed early, with more than 900 swimmers registered. Volunteers are still needed, and donations and virtual participation through SAA My Way remain open. Proceeds support cancer research at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. To volunteer, donate or participate virtually, visit swimacrossamerica.org/rhodeisland.

This year’s swim carries added meaning. It will honor event co-founder John O’Neill, who retired this year after 36 seasons leading Providence College Swimming & Diving.

Established in 2010, the Rhode Island swim has raised more than $3 million for cancer research at Women & Infants’ Program in Women’s Oncology. It draws more than 1,000 swimmers and volunteers combined each year, including more swimmers than any other Swim Across America event, and is one of the largest charity open water swims in the country. It also attracts more than 20 collegiate swimming, diving and water polo teams — more than any other Swim Across America event — along with over a dozen age-group and high school teams. Masters swimmers, community members, cancer survivors, researchers, clinicians and caregivers are also part of the day.

Honoring Coach John O’Neill

O’Neill co-founded the Rhode Island swim with Swim Across America in 2010 and has served on its event committee ever since. Through his relationships with coaches and programs throughout New England, he recruited the college teams that now fill the beach each September. He also made the cause part of the culture of Providence College Swimming & Diving, which has raised over $550,000 of the more than $3 million the event has generated for cancer research.

“Coach O’Neill has been the heart of Swim Across America – Rhode Island since its inception,” said Douglas Sayles, event director of Swim Across America – Rhode Island. “He introduced generations of Providence College swimmers to this cause and brought New England coaches and swimming programs together around a shared purpose. Most of all, he has shown young athletes how they can use the sport they love to make a meaningful difference for families facing cancer. We’re grateful to John and glad this year’s swim can help celebrate his career.”

The Sept. 12 swim opens a full day honoring O’Neill. Swimmers, Providence College alumni, colleagues and friends will gather at Roger Wheeler State Beach in the morning, and a retirement reception hosted on campus by Providence College will follow that evening. Reception tickets are $40 and available at bit.ly/oneill-reception.

O’Neill’s reasons for helping start the swim were personal.

“Too many family members and friends have been lost to cancer and we wanted to do something that could help,” said O’Neill of his involvement with Swim Across America.

His commitment deepened as he supported Providence College swimmers who faced cancer themselves, including former student-athletes Colleen Lowell ’97 and Kara McCurdy ’22. McCurdy continued swimming at Providence after her treatment and later joined O’Neill and the Friars at the Rhode Island swim.

For O’Neill, bringing college swimmers together at Roger Wheeler State Beach has always been about more than one morning of swimming.

“Our Rhode Island Swim is unique with so many college participants involved,” O’Neill told Swimming World. “We hope that once the students graduate and relocate, they stay involved with Swim Across America no matter where their future takes them!”

O’Neill came to the sport as a Rhode Island swimmer himself. He swam for the Abbott Run Valley Club, the Cumberland-Lincoln Boys’ Club and Cumberland High School, where he earned All-State honors, and at Springfield College. He founded the Providence College swimming and diving program in 1984 and coached the Friars for 17 seasons, then spent five years as head coach at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He returned to Providence in 2007 and led the Friars for another 19 seasons. During his 36 seasons at Providence, nine of his student-athletes combined to win 20 individual event titles at the BIG EAST Championships.

Away from the college ranks, he coached age-group swimmers at Little Rhody Aquatic Club and Providence Aquatic Club, and directed swim camps in Rhode Island. O’Neill received the CSCAA Swim Across America Service Award in 2016. He was inducted into the Rhode Island Aquatic Hall of Fame in 1994 and received its Ellis Mayers Humanitarian Award in May 2026. Providence College has established the Cindy and John O’Neill Swimming and Diving Endowed Fund in honor of his career and his impact on generations of student-athletes.

About Swim Across America

Nationally, Swim Across America has raised more than $150 million for cancer research since its founding in 1987 and has helped fund clinical trials that contributed to the FDA-approved cancer immunotherapy medications Keytruda, Opdivo, Yervoy and Tecentriq. In the past year, Swim Across America funded a breakthrough clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering that showed immunotherapy alone could successfully treat certain types of cancer. The organization also recently awarded two first-of-its-kind gene editing innovation grants to the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, advancing novel CRISPR gene and base editing techniques used in targeted therapies, immunotherapies and cellular therapies. Swim Across America supports more than 60 cancer research projects annually, has eight named Swim Across America labs, and supports work at many of the nation’s leading cancer institutions.

Swim Across America, Inc. (SAA) is dedicated to raising money and awareness for cancer research, prevention and treatment through swimming-related events. With open water and pool swims in 27 communities across the United States – from Nantucket to under the Golden Gate Bridge – Swim Across America, along with the help of thousands of swimmers and volunteers nationwide, and past and current Olympians, is helping find better treatments and a cure for cancer through athleticism, community outreach and direct service. To learn more, visit swimacrossamerica.org.