Records in the English Channel do not fall with regularity like pool swimming records. In particular, records in the English Channel sometimes take decades to fall.

A record like Philip Rush’s 3-way (England-to-France-to-England-to-France) crossing of 28 hours 21 minutes was set in 1987 and has not been touched yet. The likelihood of anyone equaling, let alone surpassing, the four-way English Channel crossing of Sarah Thomas is also highly unlikely.

Record Progression

In 1994, the solo one-way English Channel crossing was set by American Chad Hundeby in 7 hours 17 minutes. Over the next 32 years, the record was gradually dropped from 7 hours 3 minutes by Christof Wandratsch to 6 hours 56 minutes by Petar Stoychev to 6 hours 55 minutes by Trent Grimsey to 6 hours 45 minutes by Andreas Waschburger – which is the current record.

Top 10 English Channel Solo One-way Crossings

1. Andreas Waschburger, Germany in September 2023 in 6 hours 45 minutes at the age of 36
2. Trent Grimsey, Australia in September 2012 in 6 hours 55 minutes at the age of 24
3. Petar Stoychev, Bulgaria in August 2007 in 6 hours 56 minutes at the age of 30
4. Christof Wandratsch, Germany in August 2005 in 7 hours 3 minutes at the age of 38
5. Yuri Kudinov, Russia in August 2007 in 7 hours 5 minutes t the age of 28
6. Rostislav Vítek, Czech Republic in August 2009 in 7 hours 16 minutes at the age of 33
7. Chad Hundeby, USA in September 1994 in 7 hours 17 minutes t the age of 23
8. Christof Wandratsch, Germany in August 2003 in 7 hours 20 minutes at the age of 36
9. Petar Stoychev, Bulgaria in August 2006 in 7 hours 21 minutes at the age of 29
10. David Meca Medina, Spain in August 2005 in 7 hours 22 minutes at the age of 31

Women’s recordd: Yvetta Hlaváčová, Czech Republic in August 2006 in 7 hours 25 minutes at the age of 31

6-person English Channel Relay Record

The Rotherham Neptunus Swim Club set the first six-person one-way English Channel record in 1950 in 11 hours 20 minutes.

Other notable one-way relay crossings include the Team EC6 / Total Immersion in 2014 in 7 hours 3 minutes with Christof Wandratsch, Kirsten Cameron, Steve West, Bernie Zeruhn, and Andrew Chamberlain, and Dover Lifeguard Club in 1981 in 7 hours 17 minutes.

The Dover Lifeguard Club record of 1981 was broken in 1990 by a six-person relay of Americans: Chad Hundeby, Martha Jahn, Karen Burton, Dirk Bouma, and Sid Cassidy [photo shown above]. Their England-to-France relay record of 6 hours 52 minutes still stands after 36 years.

The American team carried on after reaching France and also set the France-to-England relay record coming back in their second leg of a two-way crossing in 7 hours 26 minutes. Their effort remains history’s fastest overall and fastest 2-way relay (England-to-France-to-England) in 14 hours 18 minutes in 1990.

Penny Dean served as the head coach with John York as the assistant coach and coach Flip Darr. “John and I were prepared to swim,” explained Dean. “I decided as the head USA Swimming national team coach that I shouldn’t swim and John was such a good coach that I asked him to coach instead. He was fine with that.”

The team was stacked with talent, expertise and experience. Penny Dean was not only the overall solo record holder in the English Channel, but also the overall solo record holder in the Catalina Channel at the time. York was the two-way crossing record holder in the Catalina Channel and had completed numerous solo crossings across the Catalina Channel and English Channel.  Darr was the personal coach of Hundeby. Cassidy was the college coach of Wilkerson at Florida State University.

Hundeby would later go on to set the English Channel one-way crossing himself while Burton would later win a bronze medal in the 25 km FINA World Championships and win two FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix overall titles. Jahn won a silver medal in the 25 km FINA World Championships the next year in Perth.

“There’s no playing around to it,” said Wilkerson about swimming in the ocean. “You’ve got waves slapping in your face, and you’re fighting that current. You’re in another world. You beg for your second wind to come.”

There was always a second wind with this fast pod of experienced ocean swimmers.

The Americans werebasically doing a warm-up swim for their main goal which was to compete in the British Long Distance Swimming Association’s 25 km Windermere International Championships. “Wilkerson, Hundeby, Jahn and Burton had qualified for the championships at the USA National Open Water Swimming Championships and they were on their way to Windermere,” recalls Cassidy.

“Penny really organized a great trip. We went over to Dover as a training trip for the Windermere event. We stayed in a small place and filled up half of the rooms, eating bangers and mash. Penny’s idea was to get acclimated to the cold water that the athletes would experience in Windermere. Dirk Bouma was a friend of Karen’s who was planning to do his solo English Channel crossing that summer. So he was ready to go and a really good swimmer. Penny asked me if I would swim about 6 months ahead of time. I was coaching Jay at Florida State University at the time in my early 30s. I was out of it, but I had 6 months to train and did not want to disappoint the young swimmers.”

With Wilkerson, Hundeby, Jahn, Burton, and Bouma young, in shape and in the middle of their careers, Cassidy had to – and did – step up to meet the challenge.

But there was still the challenge of the Channel. Nothing is a given, especially in the pre-GPS era.

“Chad was really fast, but he was also deathly afraid of the dark,” remembers Cassidy. “So Jay led off at 4:00 am with the girls – Martha and Karen – going next also swimming in the dark. Jay swam with this glow-in-the-dark necklace and the fog was so thick. The visibility was between only 10 to 120 feet. We knew it was daylight, but we still could not see the sun. But the swimmers were going fast and we had been swimming for 5 hours when I got in around 9 to 10 am. The fog was still thick when I jumped in, but then it burned off during my leg.

Suddenly, we could see France and people on the boat got really excited. I gave it my all and then Jay sprinted in to complete the crossing.

When I got out, I was dead. I could see Jay swimming into France in the water which was in the high 50’s. But I was happy with my leg. But when I got out of the water, I heard a discussion going onboard and wondered what the issue was. Penny came over to me and told me that she had both good news and bad news. ‘What’s the good news?’ I asked.

‘We are going to crush the record…’ Penny said smiling. ‘And we decided to do a double crossing and swim back…’ is the bad news.”

With the young athletes heading back, Cassidy sucked it up and put in another good leg on the crossing back to England. “We came across some really giant jellyfish; at first we thought they were big trash bags. Then we came across a giant tanker, but these were 5 great athletes who were able to put in 2 good legs each. We had a great crew and we knew the conditions could have been worse.”

As the sun was setting on the way back, the six Americans completed their two-way crossing whose time of 14 hours 18 minutes still stands 36 years later.

The team had a day of rest and then headed up to Windermere where Hundeby got sick, but Wilkerson won the men’s race and Jahn and Burton swam to a 1-2 finish in the women’s 25 km.

“I still think that experience motivated Hundeby to head back 4 years later when he set the English Channel record (in 7 hours 17 minutes),” says Cassidy.

But for a training swim meant to prepare the athletes for Windermere, that two-way crossing is one for the record books.

The British Are Coming

George Taplin who has swum some of the fastest crossings in history across Windermere in the Lake District in England came up with an idea to challenge the American record. He started by recruiting three-time Olympic gold medalist Tom Dean, MBE, a long-time friend of his.

That got the ball rolling and the team eventually included:

• Tom Dean, MBE (26, Great Britain, World Aquatics bio here, @tomdean00)
• Joshua Gammon (23, Great Britain, World Aquatics bio here, @josh.gammon)
• George Taplin (28, Great Britain, @georgetaplin)
• Daniel Jervis (30, Great Britain, World Aquatics bio here, @danieljervis1)
• Toby Robinson (30, Great Britain, World Aquatics bio here, @tobiasrobinson)
• Hector Pardoe (25, Great Britain, World Aquatics bio here, @hectorpardoe)
• Red Top Performance coach Tim Denyer (47, Great Britain, @redtopperformance)
• Escort pilots Reg Brickell, Jr. and Ray Brickell with Kevin Peters onboard the Viking Princess II

Their window to break their one-way record of the Americans is between September 18th and 25th. The crossing will be attempted most likely on September 22nd under the auspices of the Channel Swimming Association.

The British team is extremely formidable:

• Dean: a 3-time Olympic gold medalist (2020) who is training for LA28 Olympic Games
• Gammon: British national champion in 200m butterfly + 2024 World Aquatics Swimming Championships and LEN Championships competitor
• Taplin: Lake Windermere course record holder (assisted in 2025)
• Jervis: 2020 Tokyo Olympics (5th in 1500m) and 2024 Paris Olympics (15th in 1500m) competitor
• Robinson: 14th 2024 Paris Olympics open water swim
• Pardoe: 2-time Olympian including 6th in 2024 Paris Olympics open water swim

They are attempting to break the course record as a charity event for the Royal Life Saving Society UK in a campaign called Back the Swim. Break the Record. Save Lives. See here.

The British team is ready to take down the American relay record.

• They consist of all men, including four Olympic swimmers.
• They have the most successful and experienced English Channel coach, Tim Denyer. “The Channel swimming guru,” as Dean described him.
• The water temperatures in the Channel have been among the warmest in history.
• Two of the most experienced Channel pilots are guiding the team.
• The team is focused on a one-way crossing, not a two-way crossing like the American team did.

“This is the perfect window,” says Dean. “[We are] six of the fastest guys in the UK. We need everything to line up. I have been training for this in the lochs of Scotland where the water has been fresh. And we are trying to raise money for the Royal Life Saving Society to they can continue their water education programs up and down the country.“

Timing

Taplin reached out to Denyer after discussing the challenge with Andy Donaldson, British record holder of the English Channel in 8 hours 0 minutes. Denyer’s role was to advise on the intricacies of the swim and particularly the pitfalls and how to avoid them. Furthermore, it would be down to Denyer to source the best possible pilots and tidal dates. Knowing that the Autumn Equinox would potentially lead to a longer window, Denyer selected four dates that he hoped he could land the swim on, between September 19th and 22nd, when the neap tides would have least movement. And then he would pray that the winds would be calm across that period.

See here to support their fundraising efforts where a documentary film team will be with the British team.

But the Channel is the Channel and anything can happen in the 19°C water between England and France.

Footnote:

There are 16 honorees in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame who are involved in either the British or American relay teams or who are noted in this article.

• Philip Rush, IMSHOF Class of 1985
• Sarah Thomas, IMSHOF Class of 2018
• Chad Hundeby, IMSHOF Class of 1996
• Christof Wandratsch, IMSHOF Class of 2004
• Petar Stoychev, IMSHOF Class of 2008
• Trent Grimsey, IMSHOF Class of 2018
• Yuri Kudinov, IMSHOF Class of 2009
• Yvetta Hlaváčová, IMSHOF Class of 2021
• Karen Burton, IMSHOF Class of 1999
• Sid Cassidy, IMSHOF Class of 2005
• Penny Lee Dean, IMSHOF Class of 1980
• John York, IMSHOF Class of 1989
• Reg Brickell, Jr., IMSHOF Class of 2009
• Ray Brickell, IMSHOF Class of 2009
• Channel Swimming Association, IMSHOF Class of 1996
• British Long Distance Swimming Association, IMSHOF Class of 2002
• Andy Donaldson, IMSHOF Class of 2026

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