So, what does a Division I college swimmer who set three school records, earned two All-American honors and captained the junior and senior swim team do afterwards? Well, naturally, swim with sharks in the English Channel.
That swimmer is Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Officer Sean Dunne, a six-year PAPD veteran assigned to the Newark Liberty International Airport Facility Police Command.
Prior to Dunne entering the water at approximately 4 a.m. on July 2, 2025, in the vicinity of Dover, England, his longest swim was a training swim of 18 miles. The straight-line distance across the English Channel is 21 miles, but current and tide conditions typically add more miles for a swimmer. Dunne’s swim was longer. By the time he emerged from the water near Cap Gris Nez, France, he had swum 23.8 miles, clocking 10 hours and 47 minutes. That equated to a 21-mile time of nine hours and 15 minutes, basically Dunne’s goal.
As a champion and long-distance swimmer, the English Channel swim was not only a personal goal and challenge for Dunne but an opportunity to raise awareness and funds for the Anthony M. Varvaro Believe Foundation. The Foundation, named in honor of fallen Port Authority Police Officer Anthony Varvaro (EOW 9/11/2022), contributes to youth sports programs on Staten Island in New York City, Varvaro’s hometown.
Prior to joining the PAPD, Police Officer Varvaro lived a childhood dream held by many young boys. He was a successful Major League Baseball pitcher with the Seattle Mariners, Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox. He retired from baseball after six years on the mound. He knew he could continue to pitch at the Major League level for two to three more years, but another dream needed to come to life. He possessed a criminal justice degree from St. John’s University, took the PAPD test and received an appointment to the Port Authority Police Academy.
Varvaro grew up on Staten Island among many families who lost first responder loved ones on September 11, 2001, at the World Trae Center. When he graduated from the academy, he found himself assigned to the PAPD World Trade Center Command, arguably the nation’s most famous police command. He was once again performing on the biggest stage.
On September 11, 2022, Varvaro was reporting to his patrol assignment at the 9/11 Memorial for the 21st Annual 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony when he was killed by a wrong-way driver.
Jim Thomson, Anthony Varvaro’s brother-in-law and Varvaro family spokesman, said, “We are beyond honored that Sean Dunne thought to remember Anthony, and support the Varvaro Foundation, as part of his journey across the English Channel. Showing up every day to grind out what’s needed to accomplish a goal is exactly what Anthony was all about. Anthony’s brothers and sisters in blue have continued to make us feel the love from day one, and we greatly appreciate Sean’s huge contribution to the feeling that gives us.”
Since the first recorded Channel swim in 1875, fewer than 2,000 swimmers have completed the swim, and only a small percentage were Americans.
For the overwhelming majority, it is not easy to even imagine the difficulty of such an endeavor. Dunne described his experience swimming from England to France, traversing the English Channel, saying, “Ultra-marathon swimming is the complete surrender of control. You enter an environment that offers no stability — no knowledge of time, no visual markers, no comforting rhythms. Even your breath is dictated by the ocean’s moods.”
Dunne continued, describing how his senses abandoned him. “Salt water slowly strips away your senses: your ability to see, to taste, to swallow. The cold creeps in, insidiously, dulling your limbs until movement becomes a distant memory. Fog closes in. The dark depths rise to meet you. With nothing to stimulate your mind, your brain begins to invent its own reality. Shadows circle beneath the surface. Your heart races. You reason with yourself — ‘get out. Quit.’ The silence whispers back, ‘Why are you doing this? It’s never going to end.’”
With every arm stroke and leg kick, “You beg for stimulation, and when it comes — crashing waves, biting stings, pain — you beg for it to stop.”
But stimulation became his pain. “My shoulder burned with inflammation. My hip flexor screamed from strain. Jellyfish stings left angry welts across my body.”
And soon, his pain became his power. “I turned every discomfort into fuel, because there was nothing else to draw on. No soundtrack. No finish line in sight. Just water and willpower. You have to push your mind beyond every built-in safety mechanism evolution gifted us. Every fiber of your being tells you to stop to survive. But I kept going — not because I knew the reason why, but because this is what I was doing.”
Dunne now has his sights on completing the Oceans Seven, a swimming challenge that includes seven iconic ocean channel swims that less than 40 people worldwide have completed. With the English Channel swim in the books, Dunne will now train to swim the Catalina Channel, California (20 miles); the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Moracco (nine miles); the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland (21 miles); the Kaiwi Channel, Hawaii (26 miles); the Cook Strait, New Zealand (14 miles); and the Tsugaru Strait, Japan (12 miles).
Anthony Varvaro and Sean Dunne ascended to the top of their sports by, as Jim Thomson said of Varvaro, “Showing up every day to grind out what’s needed to accomplish a goal.” Dunne reflected on Thomson’s words, knowing his English Channel swim is the first step to accomplishing his goal of completing Oceans Seven, saying, “Pain sharpens. Comfort dulls. And in that clarity, somewhere between agony and isolation, is where I found the truest form of myself.”
