Spencer M. Korwin, a former Team USA triathlete and wellness entrepreneur, drowned during a morning swim on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, while vacationing with his family on Shelter Island, N.Y. He was 38. Relatives and friends gathered in Manhattan on Sunday, September 6, for his funeral.
Korwin, a father of two young daughters, entered the water about 8 a.m. that Wednesday from the dock at the hotel where he and his relatives were lodging, said Shelter Island Police Det. Sgt. Jack Thilberg. Divers found him underwater near that same dock about seven hours later.
Police have identified the site as the private dock of the Pridwin Hotel.
How the Search Unfolded
His wife notified hotel staff when he did not come back from the water, and the staff called for emergency help. Police said the report of a missing swimmer came in shortly after noon, drawing officers from Shelter Island Town Police, firefighters from the Shelter Island Fire Department and crews from Shelter Island Town Emergency Medical Services (EMS).
Crews worked the Crescent Beach-North Channel area of Shelter Island Sound and the waterways around it, with police helicopters and multiple marine units joining the effort. Shelter Island EMS contributed two ambulances and several volunteers alongside those marine and air crews.
Divers located Korwin about 3 p.m., and authorities concluded that drowning had killed him. Detectives working alongside the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office regard the death as accidental and have found no indication of criminality, according to Thilberg. The investigation remains open, police said, and the medical examiner will set the official cause and manner of death.
Conditions on the Water That Day
John Kirincic, a master mariner for the Southold Town Police Department’s Marine One, described the weather that day to the Shelter Island Reporter. “There was no fog or anything bad,” he said. The current in that stretch is frequently strong, Kirincic noted, because of the narrow passage the tide runs through.
A Fixture on the East End Circuit
Korwin graduated from Syracuse University in 2010. Two years later he qualified for Team USA Triathlon and raced at the World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand, and that same year he also became a Gatorade-sponsored athlete.
He was also a familiar name in Long Island’s endurance-sports scene, piling up podium finishes at races across the East End. His LinkedIn profile listed wins at both the Montauk Point Lighthouse Triathlon and the Mighty Montauk Sprint Triathlon.
In 2021 he founded Korwin Health & Wellness, counseling competitive athletes and ordinary clients alike on rest, nutrition and the balancing of daily demands, all while logging his own training hours for Ironman and Ironman 70.3 events. He described his work as helping people “achieve goals that once seemed out of reach.”
His grandfather was Irving Korwin, a World War II veteran who founded Wideband Coin Jewelry and died in 2020 in Arizona.
Funeral Service
The funeral service was held at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 6, in Manhattan.
Korwin is survived by his wife, Carly Korwin, and their two daughters, Sadie, four, and Colette, one. Josh Grosbard, David Himmel and Jeffrey Witten launched a GoFundMe campaign for the family on September 4, and by the evening of September 10 it had passed $405,000 from more than 800 donors, against a $500,000 goal. One anonymous donor gave $38,000. The total is still climbing, and organizers said the money will go into an education fund for the two girls. Korwin was a regular presence in the Hamptons, and he and his wife were married on the beach in Bridgehampton.
A small island town wedged between the North and South forks of eastern Long Island, Shelter Island draws heavy summer traffic from vacationing families, and town police and volunteer emergency crews patrol its waters. The missing-swimmer call on September 2 pulled in departments from across the area before divers ended the search that afternoon.
Police described the drowning as accidental, but the investigation is continuing, and the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to issue its findings on the official cause and manner of death.