Photos courtesy of Christer Kuttainen.

Swim the Arctic Circle (@swimaceu) is a 2 km and 3 km cross-border swim between Juoksenki, Finland and Juoksengi, Sweden in the Torne River. It is one of the World’s Top 100 River Swims with interesting and unique facts:

• the start and finish areas are in different time zones, with a one hour difference
• the start of the 2 km race starts in Sweden on a beach north of the Arctic Circle and finishes south of the Arctic Circle as the swimmers cross the border of Finland en route. The start and finish at the Swedish shore
• the 3 km race starts at midnight in the Torne River as a night swim in the bright Nordic summer night. It starts on the Finish shore right after midnight Finnish time, crosses the Finnish-Swedish border and the Arctic Circle and the local time zone
• swimmers who swam the 3 km race in less than 55 minutes reach the finish before the day the competition began

46-year-old John Kenny (@jkenny5150), a five-time USA Swimming national open water swimming champion who competed in several FINA World Swimming Championships in Japan, Canada, Spain and Italy, won both the 2 km and 3 km races.

Finland’s Julia Erviö nearly did the same. She won the 2 km race in 1 second over Aada Kautovaara, but she lost the 3 km race to Sweden’s Stina Gardell by 2 seconds.

2 km Top 25 Finishers

1. John Kenny 1980, USA 20:27
2. Florian Werner 1984, Germany 22:03
3. Samuli Keisu 1989, Finland 22:19
4. John Ström 2004, Sweden 22:31
5. Roland Weißwange 1962, Germany 22:55
6. Julia Erviö 1995, Finland 23:24 – first female
7. Sebastian Hagen 1981, Germany 23:25
8. Aada Kautovaara 2011, Finland 23:25 – second female
9. Johan Nyström 1988, Sweden 23:42
10. Morris Wikström 1989, Sweden 23:44
11. David Rich 1964, USA 24:06
12. Robert Lokaiczyk 1980,, Germany 24:24
13. Lucinda Brown 1976, Great Britain 24:29 – third female
14. Ruben Perez Diego 1977, Spain 24:37
15. Scott A Daniels 1968, USA 24:46
16. 1Krister Enger 1971, Sweden 24:49
17. Malin Johansson 1986, Sweden 25:00
18. Drew Paulsen 1992, USA 25:10
19. Molly Brown 1986, USA 25:17 – fourth female
20. Jennifer Lindgren 1984, Sweden 25:26 – fifth female
21. Björn Hawighorst 1998, Germany 25:27
22. Anna Roughley 1976, Great Britain 25:43
23. Finja Hagen 2009, Germany 25:59
24. Aleksandra Dudek 2001, Poland 26:08 – sixth female
25. Gillian Best 1975, Canada 26:18 – seventh female

3 km Top 25 Finishers

1. John Kenny 1980, USA 28:44
2. Sean Neeb 1973m Canada 30:06
3. Samuli Keisu 1989, Finland 31:01
4. Stina Gardell 1990, Sweden 32:46 – first female
5. Julia Erviö 1995, Finland 32:48 – second female
6. Caroline Martin 2000, USA 33:11 – third female
7. Mikael Gardell 1960, Sweden 33:21
8. Katt Hamill 1989, Great Britain 33:39 – fourth female
9. Stuart Carroll 1980, Australia 34:11
10. David Humphreys 1969, Great Britain 34:23
11. David Rich 1964, USA 34:25
12. Lucinda Brown 1976, Great Britain 34:36 – fifth female
13. Christopher Martin 1966, USA 34:45
14. Robert Lokaiczyk 1980, Germany 34:47
15. Ida Åström Malm 1984, Sweden 34:47 – sixth female
16. Mikael Ericsson 1975, Sweden 34:48
17. Molly Brown 1986, USA 35:24 – seventh female
18. Michael Leshnower 1970, USA 35:28
19. John Shoen 1976, USA 35:34
20. Drew Paulsen 1992, Great Britain 35:44
21. Anna Roughley 1976, Great Britain 35:51 – eighth female
22. Amy Miao 1989, USA 35:58 – ninth female
23. Odile Larguier 1971, France 36:06 – tenth female
24. Alex Hunter 2002, Great Britain 36:09
25. Krister Enger 1971, Sweden 36:15

For more information, visit here.

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