2004 Olympic swimmer Neil Agius (@neil.agius) is halfway finished with his goal of swimming 160 km around his hometown island of Malta as well as nearby islands of Gozo and Comino in the Mediterranean Sea.
The swim by the 39-year-old is estimated to take 70 hours.
His support team is providing a plethora of data, photos, videos, and social media posts before and during his swim that has two goals: Extend his previous distance record of 125.7 km set in 2021 and raise awareness about the state of Malta’s marine habitat and its critical environmental issues to inspire a collective commitment to protecting the Mediterranean Sea.
Agius competed at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games in the 400m freestyle as the national record holder in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle. His marathon swimming career has literally centered around Malta:
- Richard Zerafa, Gilbert Bartolo and Agius attempted a 70 km clockwise circumnavigation swim around Malta in 2018.
- Agius completed the planned unassisted 70 km circumnavigation swim around Malta in 21 hours 52 minutes in July 2018.
- Agius swam 38 km around Gozo in 2019 in 10 hours.
- In June 2020, Agius completed a 100 km Sicily to Malta crossing of the Malta Channel in 28 hours 8 minutes at the age of 34. His swim was part of the Wave of Change movement as he broke the then existing record from Sicily to Gozo set by Nicky Farrugia in 1985 in 30 hours 17 minutes.
- In June 2021, he completed a 125.7 km swim from Linosa, Italy to Xlendi Bay, Gozo in 52 hours 7 minutes. His support team included Sam Attard, Andrew Zammit, Simon Zammit, David Brookes, Kurt Arrigo, David Anastasi, Maja Podesta, Christa Calleja, Greg Nasmyth, Jonathan Glynn Smith, John Winfield, Lara Vella, Stephen Merceica, Andrew Schrembri, Alex Vella, Benjamin Tabone Grech, Mark Buttigieg, Twain Cutajar, Gordon Bugeja, Marc Casolani, and Ranjit Singh Mudhar.
Back in 2000, Steven Munatones wrote about Agius’ Century Swim To Malta by Neil, “2004 Olympian Neil Agius has increased his distance from 400 meters to 38 km around Gozo to 70 km around Malta and is now at 100 km when he swam from Sicily, Italy to his native country of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. His 28 hour 7 minute not only broke the existing record held by fellow Maltese Olympian Nicky Farrugia who also swam from Sicily to Gozo in 1985 in 30 hours 17 minutes, but it has also immediately inspired him to go further. The 34-year-old departed from Sicily at 5:15 am and arrived at St Julian’s Water Polo & Aquatic Club in Malta the next day at 9:24 am, with the swim becoming a subject of a documentary called The Long Swim Home. He not only created and succeeded in finishing a charity swim as part of the Wave of Change movement which raises awareness about marine pollution and threats to marine habitats, set a new record from Sicily to Malta, and is dreaming of longer, tougher and more ambitious goals as a result of his Sicily-to-Malta crossing.”
To be continued.
Follow his tracker here.
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