Open Water Swimming News & Views

Steven Leitch , swimming under the escort of Captain Matt Buckman , started last night on Molokai Island to swim across the Molokai Channel . The 49-year-old from North Carolina landed 42 km on Oahu 12 hours 54 minutes later, together with his team of Michelle Walker Nault, Livy, Jay, Emmett, and his dog Wallace. He used the crossing to raise money for counseling costs for the foster children of Miracle Hill Ministries . To learn more and to donate, visit here .

The future of flying - and its former crowded past... If the Multicabin® design really comes to fruition, there will be a lot of happy and more restful open water swimmers traveling internationally to their open water swims and channel crossings (across the Cook Strait, English Channel, Catalina Channel, Strait of Gibraltar, Tsugaru Channel, Molokai Channel, Travessia do Leme ao Pontal, Sea of Galilee, 20 Bridges Swim, International Self-Transcendence Marathon Swim, Lake Ontario, SCAR, etc.). The elimination of the middle seat on international flights will be a greatly welcomed change. Imagine arriving to your destination not feeling groggy, fatigued, and totally jetlagged. If there are channel swimmers from the Americas, Europe, or Africa interested in attempting a Cook Strait crossing in New Zealand, Air New Zealand will soon offer Skynest, the first sleeping pods in the sky for economy class passengers. Swimmers can catch a few very welcomed hours of restful sleep in a fl...

Jamie Tout from Austin, Texas has always overcome obstacles, either from Mother Nature or physiological. This year, the 69-year-old Texan (who will turn 70 in May) has prepared himself for a daunting series of marathon swims. For the first swim of the season, he will head off to Israel and take on a 21 km lengthwise crossing of the Sea of Galilee on April 24th. Then he returns to the States where he will head down the Mighty Red River of the North in the famed 57.9 km END-WET river race from North Dakota to Minnesota. If those two long marathon swims are not enough, Tout then flies to New York City to take on the 91.8 km 40 Bridges Swim , a double circumnavigation swim around Manhattan Island. And, if all of that swimming is not enough to fatigue a hardened marathon veteran who is up to 60,000 meters per week in his training, Tout intends to carry on to even bigger and tougher challenges. His summer season will culminate with two swims in Lake Tahoe . First, he wil...

Copa Brasil de Águas Abertas is a series of 1.5 km, 2.5 km, and 5 km races held throughout Brazil. This is the 10th annual event. Held in conjunction with the Copa Brasil events, the Troféu Marcelinha Cunha event includes race of 250m and 500m for young swimmers and are sanctioned by CBDA (Confederação Brasileira de Desportos Aquáticos or the Brazilian Confederation of Aquatic Sports). The event is named after 2020 Tokyo Olympic 10K Marathon Swim gold medalist Ana Marcela Cunha . She was selected as the FINA Female Open Water Swimmer of the Year in 2010, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021. The International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honor Swimmer (Class of 2019) has won a total of 75 FINA and Olympic medals over her lengthy career, including 39 gold medals, 18 silver medals, and 18 bronze medals in World Aquatic (formerly FINA) professional races, the most in history by an open water swimmer. Ana has been among the highest echelon of professional marathon swimmers...

Director/producer Zac Norrington made a 16-minute documentary featuring International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honor Swimmer Julie Ridge . BREATHE chronicles her non-stop two-time 21 hour 2 minute circumnavigation swim around Manhattan Island in 1983 and her lifetime navigation of a bipolar disorder. The documentary film will be presented live on April 29th, May 2nd, and May 3rd, and streaming between April 27th and May 31st. For tickets and more information, visit ReelAbilities.org/newyork . For more information, visit the BREATHE page . Ridge will also bring her one-woman show BIPOLAR & THE ENGLISH CHANNEL to Sharon, Massachusetts on May 21 at 7:00 pm at Temple Israel, 125 Pond Street, Sharon, Massachusetts 02067. The performance is free. For more information, email jridgemha@aol.com. Act One of BIPOLAR & THE ENGLISH CHANNEL tells the tale of a casual mile-a-day pool lap swimmer who became a 17 hour 55 minute English Channel swimmer within nine months...

Ram Barkai , founder and chairperson of the International Ice Swimming Association (IISA), shared a variety of changes to the IISA [shown above in Antarctica]. IISA Restructure Following a big and successful World Championship in early 2023 and the rapid growth in our sport, IISA has embarked on a restructuring of its operating model to allow us to deal with its growth and allow for more people to get involved and contribute to our sport. IISA covers various activities from Ice Mile and its derivative challenges to competitions and events. IISA is not chasing any sports association or its business model. It [is] certainly learning and following some established experiences, but the most important part of the IISA sport model is its swimmers, their safety, and their passion for the ICE. We endeavour to maintain this forever. Some IISA Board members have stepped down to join some of the newly formed working committees and to allow new ones to join us in time. I want to take t...

The first Olympic 10K Marathon Swim was held in a rowing basin at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The second Olympic 10K Marathon Swim was held in the Serpentine, a man-made lake in Hyde Park in the center of London, England at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The third Olympic 10K Marathon Swim will be held in Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The fourth Olympic 10K Marathon Swim was held in Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo Bay, Japan at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. All of these courses were loop courses. Four times around the rowing basin in Beijing in 2008, won by by Larisa Ilchenko of Russia and Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands. Six times around the Serpentin in London in 2012, won by Eva Risztov of Hungary and Ous Mellouli of Tunisia. Five times around an ocean course in Copacabana Beach in 2016, won by Sharon van Rouwendaal and Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands. Four times around Tokyo Bay in 2021 won by Ana Marcela Cunha...