This Is the Story of a Man Who Jumped Into Lake Michigan Every Day for Nearly a Year

He started one Saturday as the pandemic was raging. Then he just kept going, never mind Chicago’s winter.

CHICAGO — One Saturday last June, Dan O’Conor began his day in a prickly and painful state. He was anxious from the coronavirus pandemic, troubled by American politics and, on this particular morning after celebrating his son’s high school graduation with neighbors and a few tumblers of bourbon, spectacularly hung over. Fed up with his whingeing, his wife, Margaret, ordered him out of the house. He climbed on his bike and rode three miles east to Lake Michigan, where he could see the skyline of downtown Chicago shimmering to the south. Mr. O’Conor stood on the lip of concrete at the edge of the lake, where the water below was maybe 15 feet deep and a bracing 50 degrees. His head throbbed. He jumped.