Craig Lenning joined the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming Club with his 11 hour and 25 minute crossing of the English Channel last week. Craig started off his Triple Crown on August 10th, 2009 with a 9:09:51 Catalina Channel crossing and followed that up with a Manhattan Island Marathon Swim on June 12th, 2010 […]

The Manhattan Island Marathon Swim world record looks to be in jeopardy on September 10th when English Channel record holder Petar Stoychev and Olympian Mark Warkentin will go head-to-head to break the long-standing Manhattan Island record of 5:45:25 set by Shelley Taylor-Smith in 1995. It is a heated rivalry renewed on two levels. On one

While Americans have their Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, Irish swimmers have Spike Island (Irish: Inis Píc) in Cobh Harbour, Ireland. Both once well-guarded prisons with infamous inmates, the sites are now also known for challenging cold-water swims with tricky currents where convicts have given way to open water traditionalists and wetsuit-clad swimmers. Markus Rössel,

David Handley, Founding Director of Fiji Swims and Bathtub Productions, hosts a great open water swimming event in Fiji, but in keeping in line with his laid-back, fun-filled approach to open water swimming, the event has instituted a time penalty of 10% for use of wetsuits and technical swimsuits in the 18K solo swim and

Veteran marathon swimmer Jim Barber added to his resume with a successful Catalina Channel crossing that earned him a place on the Triple Crown Club. After three Manhattan Island Marathon Swims under his belt (7:45.43 in 1988, 7:45.15 in 1989 and 7:06.34 in 1991), Jim tackled the English Channel in 2006 with a 9:06.36 crossing

Douglas Miller of Fiji holds the world record for the 18K Fiji Swims event from the Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa to Beachcomber Island in 4 hours and 56 minutes. This year, swimmers from Australia, New Zealand, USA, England, Singapore and Malaysia are flying to tropical Fiji to join locals to try and break Douglas’

After Greece won the 5K Team Pursuit race at the European Swimming Championships in Hungary and Olympic medalists like Larisa Ilchenko and David Davies finished out of the money – something previously unthinkable – the surprises and upheaval in the elite echelon of open water swimming continued. Olga Beresnyeva of Ukraine unexpectedly won the 25K

Joanie Guillemette-Simard, a 24-year-old marathon swimmer from Canada, had to face something that few other marathon swimmers experience before their swim. She was injured, including broken fingers, lacerations and blood-swelled eyes, when she hit a moose while driving in Quebec and was fortunately saved from further injury. Moose can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds

Greece won gold in the 5K Team Pursuit race at the European Swimming Championships in Hungary last Friday. Olympian Spyridon Gianniotis, Antonios Fokaidis and Kalliopi Araouzou comfortably won with a time of 59 minutes and 3 seconds. In a tight finish for the silver medal, Italy (Simone Ercoli, Simone Ruffini and Rachele Bruni) came second

The trio of three-way English Channel swimmers of Jon Erikson, Alison Streeter and Philip Rush are legendary in the marathon swimming world. John Van Wisse attempted to join the elite echelon of three-way swimmers, but fell frustratingly short despite an excellent two-way channel crossing in 19 hours and 55 minutes. According to the Herald Sun,