River claims life of endurance athlete

A 32-year-old accomplished swimmer drowned in the North Fork of the American River near Soda Springs Monday.Amy Chamberlain of San Francisco was in the same waters she splashed in as a child near her family's resort property in The Cedars, a remote vacation community south of Soda Springs, about 45 minutes east of Auburn.She was swimming with her boyfriend near a natural waterfall at around 5 p.m. Monday when strong turbulence pulled her underwater.After her boyfriend, Andrew Wyckoff, of San Francisco, lost sight of her, he enlisted help from several members of The Cedars, who could not rescue her.Placer County sheriff's deputies responded to the call and the California Department of Forestry assisted in recovering her. They were unable to revive her.Many co-workers said it was hard to think Chamberlain, an athletic outdoorswoman and triathlete, could have drowned.She worked in the philanthropic community as director of grant programs at AYUSA, a non-profit educational and cultural foreign exchange program based in San Francisco."We're reeling here," said Craig Brown, vice president of AYUSA, Tuesday.He said her co-workers were dealing with the loss in their own way. Many were absent from their desks. E-mails from people she's worked with around the globe have been pouring into the office.Especially close to her heart was the YES program, he said, which was formed to increase understanding between Muslim countries and the United States in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001.Just two weeks ago, she met with incoming Muslim students and senators in Washington, D.C., for a student-arrival orientation. She was also involved in helping recruit students out of Iraq to seek education in the United States."She was in a very high place, and perhaps the only consolation is she was doing what she loved," Brown said.Chamberlain biked to work every day, he said, and until a bike rack was installed downstairs, she would cram the bike in the elevator and bring it up to the office - against the building management's wishes."She was one of those people," Brown said. "She was as happy as I've ever seen her Friday going away for the Fourth of July weekend to someplace she loved with someone she truly cared about."Brown said she found a natural fit with her work, which brought her love of travel and helping people together.Her business travels took her to Japan and the Middle East and she took other trips to study in Denmark and Hungary."The exceptional thing was her ability to make friends and maintain friendships," said her brother, Michael Chamberlain, from his parents' home in San Francisco. "She had an unprecedented network of very close friends in the Bay Area and around the world."Chamberlain grew up in San Francisco and attended Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.For more than a decade, Chamberlain has competed in endurance events including the Boston Marathon, the Wildflower Triathlon in Monterey County and the open water 1-Mile Masters swim at Lake Berryessa.Michael Chamberlain, who was with his sister at the vacation home this weekend, had seen his sister swim before in competition."She was an exceptional swimmer, but with late snowmelt the river was very high in places," he said. "It's a place we've all swum before, but there may have been whirlpools none of us could have seen."Monday marked the first river casualty of 2005 in Placer County, but it was not the first caused by swift and frigid waters from a long, cool rainy season. In El Dorado County over Memorial Day weekend, a 12-year-old girl and her father died in Rock Creek near south fork of the American River."When the water is running fast and cold, you start losing your strength quickly," said Lt. George Malim, spokesman for the Placer County Sheriff's Office. "And when you don't know what's under the water, the turbulence can pull you down and keep you there."Malim recommends life jackets for all swimmers, although he's known the strength of the current to pull even vested swimmers down."When you get into the wrong kind of water, it doesn't matter how good of a swimmer you are," said Phil Grams, of North Highlands, who was at the confluence Tuesday with his family from Georgia.The family and friends of Amy Chamberlain are still coming to grips with losing a woman they called "vibrant" and "enthusiastic" about life."She was at an excellent point in her life," Michael Chamberlain said. "She was on the verge of getting engaged to her boyfriend. She was exactly where she wanted to be, personally and professionally."Amy is survived by her father, John Chamberlain; mother, Susan Chamberlain; brother, Michael Chamberlain; sister-in-law, Patrice Chamberlain; and nephew, Peter Chamberlain.The family plans to hold a service in the Bay Area.The Journal's Michelle Miller can be reached at michellem@goldcountrymedia.com.