Oceans Seven

Not to be confused with any of several movies in the Ocean's film series.
Oceans Seven is located in Earth
North Channel
North Channel
Cook Strait
Cook Strait
Molokaʻi Channel
Molokaʻi Channel
English Channel
English Channel
Catalina Channel
Catalina Channel
Tsugaru Strait
Tsugaru Strait
Strait of Gibraltar
Strait of Gibraltar
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Oceans seven

The Oceans Seven is a marathon swimming challenge consisting of seven open water channel swims. It was devised in 2008 as the swimming equivalent of the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge. It comprises the North Channel, the Cook Strait, the Molokaʻi Channel, the English Channel, the Catalina Channel, the Tsugaru Strait and the Strait of Gibraltar.[1]

As of September 2024 the record for the fastest completion of all seven swims is held by Bulgarian Petar Stoychev who achieved it in 173 days, completing on 14 August 2024.[2]

As of October 2024 the record for the youngest ever person to complete all 7 swims is held by New Zealander Caitlin O'Reilly who was 20 years, 7 months, and 15 days old upon completion.

List of Oceans Seven swims

  • The North Channel: between Ireland and Scotland, 34.5 kilometres (18.6 nmi)
  • The Cook Strait: between New Zealand’s North and South Islands, 22.5 kilometres (12.1 nmi)
  • The Molokaʻi Channel (also known as the Kaiwi Channel): between Moloka’i and O’ahu, 42 kilometres (23 nmi)
  • The English Channel: between England and France, 33 kilometres (18 nmi)
  • The Catalina Channel: between Santa Catalina Island and Los Angeles, 32.3 kilometres (17.4 nmi)
  • The Tsugaru Strait: between the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, 19.5 kilometres (10.5 nmi)
  • The Strait of Gibraltar: between Spain and Morocco, 14.4 kilometres (7.8 nmi)

List of successful completions

The LongSwims Database maintains a list of swimmers who have completed the challenge:[3]

Name Date completed Nation Notes
1 Stephen Redmond 14 July 2012 Ireland First ever to complete all seven swims. Total time 2 years 344 days; cumulative time 104 hours 19 minutes.[4][5]
2 Anna-Carin Nordin 8 July 2013 Sweden First woman to complete all seven swims. Total time 2 years 290 days; cumulative time 182 hours 39 mins.[6]
3 Michelle Macy 15 July 2013 United States
4 Darren Miller 29 August 2013 United States
5 Adam Walker 6 August 2014 United Kingdom [7]
6 Kimberley Chambers 2 September 2014 New Zealand
7 Antonio Argüelles 3 August 2017 Mexico [8]
8 Ion Lazarenco-Tiron 27 January 2018 Republic of Moldova First from a landlocked country
9 Rohan Dattatrey More 9 February 2018 India First Asian[9]
10 Abhejali Bernardová 24 February 2018 Czech Republic [10]
11 Cameron Bellamy 21 June 2018 South Africa First South African[11]
12 Lynton Mortensen 14 November 2018 Australia First Australian[12]
13 Thomas “Fleppy” Pembroke 14 December 2018 Australia
14 Nora Toledano Cadena 30 March 2019 Mexico
15 Mariel Hawley Dávila 30 March 2019 Mexico
16 André Wiersig 9 June 2019 Germany
17 Elizabeth Fry 25 August 2019 United States
18 Attila Mányoki 26 August 2019 Hungary Fastest cumulative time (64 hours 35 minutes) until Donaldson, 2023[13][14]
19 Jonathan Ratcliffe 10 December 2019 United Kingdom [15]
20 Jorge Crivillés 1 January 2020 Spain First Spaniard
21 Adrian Sarchet 29 February 2020 Guernsey [16]
22 Prabhat Koli 1 March 2023 India
23 Dina Levačić 14 March 2023 Croatia First Croat, youngest (27 years)
24 Herman van der Westhuizen 16 July 2023 South Africa
25 Andrew Donaldson 27 July 2023 United Kingdom Fastest total time (355 days) until Stoychev, 2024;[17] Fastest cumulative time (63 hours 2 minutes).[13][14] Note: the previous record for total time was 2 years 60 days.[14]
26 Stephen Junk 10 September 2023 Australia
27 Kieron Palframan 6 October 2023 South Africa
28 Bárbara Hernández Huerta 14 June 2024 Chile [18]
29 Mark Sowerby 29 June 2024 Australia [19]
30 Zach Margolis 13 July 2024 United States [20]
31 Paul Georgescu 27 July 2024 România First Romanian[21]
32 Petar Stoychev 14 August 2024 Bulgaria First Bulgarian.[22] Fastest total time (173 days from 14 March to 2 September 2024: Stoychev repeated his English Channel swim after completing Oceans Seven to reduce total time)[17]
33 Nathalie Pohl 15 September 2024 Germany First German woman.[23]
34 Caitlin O'Reilly 24 October 2024 New Zealand Youngest ever swimmer to complete the Oceans Seven at 20 years, 7 months, and 15 days.

See also

References

  1. ^ Tim Moss (7 September 2014). "What are the Oceans Seven?". TheNextChallenge.Org. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
  2. ^ "Marathon Swimmer Petar Stoychev Completes All Oceans Seven Open Water Straits within 173 Days, Breaks World Record". 5 September 2024.
  3. ^ "Oceans Seven Swimmers". Oceans Seven. Marathon Swimmers Federation. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  4. ^ O'Connell, Hugh (15 July 2012). "Irish swimmer completes gruelling open water challenge". The Journal. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  5. ^ "Stephen Redmond". World Open Water Swimming Association Database. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  6. ^ "Anna-Carin Nordin". World Open Water Swimming Association Database. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  7. ^ "Open-ocean swimmer Adam Walker: 'Hardest swim of my life'". BBC News. BBC. 11 September 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  8. ^ Adam Skolnik (5 August 2017). "In a Swimmer's Two-Year Quest, a Final 21-Mile Challenge". New York Times. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
  9. ^ "Pune swimmer world's youngest to complete Ocean 7 Challenge". Inshorts - Stay Informed. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  10. ^ "European completes Ocean's Seven with Cook Strait swim". 26 February 2018.
  11. ^ "Cameron Bellamy Does Oceans Seven, South African 1st". dailynews.openwaterswimming.com. 21 June 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  12. ^ Munatones, Steven (14 November 2018). "Indomitable: Sea Bull Completes The Oceans Seven". Retrieved 7 December 2018.
  13. ^ a b McPhee, Rebecca (29 July 2023). "Andy Donaldson Completes Oceans Seven in Record Time". Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  14. ^ a b c "Scots swimmer breaks record for Oceans Seven challenge". BBC News. 4 August 2023. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  15. ^ Unknown (11 Dec 2019). "Oundle dad becomes 19th person in history to complete gruelling global swim challenge". Peterborough Telegraph. Retrieved 11 Dec 2019.
  16. ^ "'Sea Donkey' Adrian Sarchet completes Oceans Seven challenge". ITV News. 1 March 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  17. ^ a b Rusev, Momchil. "Marathon Swimmer Petar Stoychev Completes All Oceans Seven Open Water Straits within 173 Days, Breaks World Record". www.bta.bg. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  18. ^ "Bárbara Hernández Huerta's Journey to the Oceans Seven". 14 June 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  19. ^ "A Decade of Dreams Realized: Mark Sowerby Completes the Oceans Seven". 3 July 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  20. ^ "Zach Margolis: 30th Person to Complete the Oceans Seven – An Interview and His Journey Through All Seven Swims". 15 July 2024. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  21. ^ "Paul Georgescu becomes first Romanian to complete Oceans Seven swimming challenge". Romania Insider. 29 July 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  22. ^ Marinova, Tatiana. "Swimmer Petar Stoychev Becomes First Bulgarian to Swim All Oceans Seven Open Water Straits". www.bta.bg. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  23. ^ "Extremschwimmerin Pohl durchquert als erste deutsche Frau die »Ocean's Seven«". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 17 September 2024.