Want to swim in the Chicago River? You'll have to wait until next year.

Most Chicagoans wouldn't dream of swimming in the Chicago River.

Doug McConnell wants to change that.

But convincing the departments of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Transportation and Fleet and Facility Management - not to mention the city's Office of Emergency Management and the U.S. Coast Guard, among others - to let him jump in has proved much more difficult than expected.

McConnell and his co-organizer Don Macdonald hoped to organize a 2.4-mile open-water swim in the Chicago River this fall. Then the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events notified the team last week that the big swim would have to wait.

The new goal for the swim is September 2020.

"What we're asking for is pretty atypical," McConnell said. "Because it hasn't been done for nearly 100 years, there isn't a defined path that you're supposed to take to get something like this approved. So I can understand why the city departments were a little betwixt and between about who the right department to talk to was."

McConnell said he will use the extra year to line up sponsors for the event, which he estimates could cost $150,000. He hopes companies that have buildings along the river, as well as those with environmental interests, will want to support the swim.

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