Lots of people swim for long distances over long durations in the marathon swimming world.
Greek swimmer Spyros Chrysikopoulos is among those who enjoy that specific athletic discipline. And it does require a tremendous amount of self discipline.
He set a Guinness World Record for swimming the farthest distance in one week in a 50m pool at 358.2 km between May 9th and 16th 2021 in the Athens Olympic Stadium in Greece. That is an average of 51,171 meters per day – or basically an 1.5 English Channel crossing per day for seven straight days.
But Chrysikopoulos does not limit his marathon swimming to the pool. He has also swam a four-way 104 km crossing of Toroneos Bay in Greece in 34 hours 10 minutes in a wetsuit in 2017. A documentary film by Dimitra Babadima (H2O: 2 parts Heart, 1 part Obsession) was created on his unprecedented four-way crossing (see here). The film is about the former triathlete-turned-swimmer and his dream to swim 100 km in the open water. It was the most successful film at the 2017 Adventure Film Festival in Greece.
Then, he upped his goal. He planned and attempted a 124 km wetsuited marathon swim from the island of Rhodes to Kastelorizo off the coast of Turkey in October 2018.
The Greek island of Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese Islands and lies in the eastern Aegean Sea, to the northeast of the island of Crete and southeast of Athens. The island is also a short distance off the coast of Turkey. Kastelorizo is a Greek island that is the smallest, and arguably the prettiest, of the Dodecanese Islands that is located at the most eastern edge of Greece.
But approximately 100 km from Rhodes and after 30 hours en route to Kastelorizo, he fell short in rough and increasingly risky conditions.
He took nearly four years to attempt the swim Rhodes to Kastelorizo again in 2022. He started at 6:15 am on September 7th and finished on September 9th at 10:20 pm, swimming 64 hours 5 minutes with Dr. Christos Vassos constantly at his side as his observer. coast of Turkey.
And he is fast. In July 2021, he won the 24.5 km Toroneos Gulf Marathon from Kallithea to Nikita Beach in Greece in 8 hours 19 minutes.
Photos above courtesy of @evi_perraki @spyroskanatas.photographer.
This past New Year’s Eve, he raised money for children in need by swimming for 24 hours in the new 25 meter pool of O. A. K. A. (donate here for Project 24 – see his interview here).
On May 6-7th 2018, Chrysikopoulos swam 88.2 km in a 50m pool, swimming nonstop over 24 hours during his training to swim 140 km from Rhodes to Kastelorizo. He broke the record of 80 km set in 2006 by Giorgios Tsianos. His pace was 1:33 per 100 meters with an average heart rate of 103, using a wetsuit.
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