EXCLUSIVE: Aussie swim icon Des Renford's grandson keeps family tradition alive with English Channel attempt

Family traditions come in all shapes and sizes - but for Christian Renford, his is all about keeping the "legacy" of his legendary grandfather intact.

Regarded as Australia's greatest long-distance swimmer, Des Renford completed the gruelling English Channel on 19 occasions and held the 'King of the Channel' title for a number of years during his stellar career in the water.

One of the most daunting tasks in marathon swimming, Des did it with relative ease and his impact saw him inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1998 - a year before his passing - while an aquatic centre in Sydney's east is named in his honour.

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Speaking exclusively to Wide World Of Sports ahead of his English Channel attempt on August 24, Christian opened up on the decision to follow in his famous grandfather's footsteps just prior to celebrating his 50th birthday.

"I think there's already pressure there and I've been training specifically for this for nearly two years," he said.

"You don't want to waste your opportunity and you want to give everything that you've got in order to give yourself the most chance of being successful.

"I'm very mindful of trying to make sure I can maintain my grandfather's legacy. It's really hit home what he did for the sport and the position he held more broadly in the Australian sporting community and the regard that he was held.

"I look at what I'm doing at the moment and he did that in the 70s and 80s, effectively by himself and with a limited amount of support … I'm more in awe now.

"I don't want to tarnish that by any stretch of the imagination and while pressure is not the right word, I'm cognisant of the fact I don't want to tarnish his legacy."

While the remarkable nature of his grandfather's exploits decades ago have become more apparent now for Renford, he will head overseas after overcoming his own list of obstacles - most notably a shoulder issue that has required botox injections.

On top of the physical demands required, Renford has also had to juggle his commitments as the chief executive of Athletics NSW in the middle of an Olympic year.

And as is always the case for elite athletes, some facets of daily life take a back seat - but Renford admits he's in the best possible position to succeed.

"You've got a bit of a tripod - family life, work life and swimming life," he said.

"It's a little bit of a cliche, but there's absolutely no way I could do this without the support of my wife, because you need to be quite selfish and focus your time on that. I can manage the work life and swimming life, but the thing that suffers is the family life.

"Endurance sport lends itself to an older demographic - maybe not as old as me, I'm turning 50 soon - but you need to draw down on life experience when it gets tough.

"It's also not a particularly cheap sport, so you need to be able to afford it, but my circumstances are such that my kids are in their first year at university.

"I'm now also in a job where I don't travel and it means I can probably be a little bit more selfish with my time."

Renford has enlisted the help of world-renowned coach Vlad Mravec to assist him in preparations, which has seen him brave the cold temperatures of the Sydney oceans in the middle of winter ahead of his monumental trip overseas.

When it comes to swimming the English Channel, you can't leave things to chance.

"He is an absolute genius … I think it's a world record, he's coached 70-odd people over the Channel," Renford said of his coach.

"He's got a formula that works and it's very successful and he's got a lot of people over, so it's a matter of following his structure and what he does.

"I'm in the pool four days a week and in the ocean one day a week, but changing it up a little bit … I'm throwing in an extra ocean to get a little bit more comfortable in the cold water, which is pretty important at this time of year.

"This is my last week of heavy training, I will finish with another five-hour swim and then start a bit of a slower taper for the last three weeks.

"My weekend swims revert to three hours - I'm not too sure what happened in my life when I turned around and thought a three-hour swim was quick and easy. That puts things into perspective a little bit and it's very much the last run home now. 

"If I'm unsuccessful, it won't be because of the training or that I'm not fit enough - it will be because there's something outside my control that makes it impossible."