Abigail Fairman Goes Down Under to Achieve An Epic Aussie Odyssey

For certain, Abigail Fairman gets things down effectively and efficiently. Last month, the Southern California resident headed to Australia to take on the challenge of completing the Australian Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming.

The Australian Triple Crown of Marathon Swimming is managed by the Australian Long Distance Swimming Federation and Honor Organization of both the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame and the Australian Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. The marathon swimming series requires of a solo, non-assisted completion of the following three swims:

• 25 km Port to Pub Ultra Marathon from Fremantle to Rottnest Island in Western Australia
• 34 km The Big Swim - Derwent River Marathon in Tasmania
• 24 km Palm Beach to Shelley Beach Marathon Swim in New South Wales

Fairman started her journey in Australia 34 km down the Derwent River in Tasmania on March 5th. 8 hours 35 minutes later, she had the first swim of the Triple Crown of Australia finished.

Her next challenge was to travel to Sydney and swim 24 km from Palm Beach to Shelley Beach in New South Wales on March 11th. With a nearly identical time to her Derwent River Swim six days previously, she finished the ocean swim in 8 hours 32 minutes.

Then Fairman had to cross the Australian continent to head over to Rottnest Island in Western Australia where she tackled the 25 km Port to Pub Ultra Marathon on March 18th. After 9 hours 38 minutes in the Indian Ocean 13 days after her odyssey began, Fairman had achieved the Australian Triple Crown.

There have been 27 swimmers to date who have achieved the Australian Triple Crown:

1. Lynton Mortensen (Australia) in March 2020
2. Anna Strachan (Australia) in February 2021
3. Brenda Norman (Australia) in March 2021
4. Emma Radford (Australia) in March 2021
5. Richard Jones (Australia) in March 2021
6. Ross Youngman (Australia) in April 2021
7. Luke Richards (Australia) in April 2021
8. Jonathan Wall (Australia) in April 2021
9. Julie Boxsell (Australia) in April 2021
10. Felicity Harrison (Australia) in February 2022
11. Victor Pineiro (Argentina) in March 2022
12. Tara Grout (Australia) in March 2022
13. Mark Robson (Australia) in April 2022
14. Zen Durbidge (Australia) in November 2022
15. James Clothier (Australia) in November 2022
16. Bob Tarr (Australia) in March 2023
17. Nicky Mackenzie (Australia) in March 2023
18. Ben Humphreys (Australia) in March 2023
19. Greg Woodward (Australia) in March 2023
20. Michael Pranckl (Austria) in March 2023
21. Paul Stravato (Australia) in March 2023
22. Melanie Holland (England) in March 2023
23. Marcus Payne (Australia) in March 2023
24. Abigail Fairman (USA) in March 2023
25. Sharon Young (Australia) in March 2023
26. Katya Noble (Australia) in March 2023
27. Eric Bateman (Australia) in March 2023

Photo above shows Abigail Fairman swimming across Lake Erie with Shawn Lauriat in her record-setting 15 hours 27 minute crossing.

Location: Huntington Beach, CA, USA

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