Photos courtesy of Cow Lau, Clean Half Extreme Marathon Swim, Hong Kong. Young 16-year-old Bill Thorley was the first solo swimmer to finish the 15 km Clean Half Extreme Marathon Swim in Hong Kong this weekend in a fast 4 hours 42 seconds, especially given the wavy, windy conditions with strong currents. Race director and […]

Courtesy of The Ocean Foundation, Planet Earth. The ocean makes half the world’s oxygen. 94% of life on earth is aquatic. Roughly half of the legal jurisdiction of the United States is underwater. Most of the items we use every day are shipped in containers across the ocean. You know the ocean is important to

Courtesy of Seán O’Connell, Hamilton, Bermuda. Former Bermuda College mathematics professor Dr. Seán O’Connell has written a book about his unprecedented two-day circumnatation around Bermuda in 1976. The 116-page autobiographical account details the then-33-year-old’s months of preparation, a failed attempt, and his grueling 43 hour 27 minute 38-mile circumnavigation swim that raised $11,000 for charity.

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach. Kathy Batts has done a lot in the open water swimming world: swimmer, crew member, administrator, volunteer, coach, member of the Half Century Club, and inspirational icon. She added one more accomplishment to her long career this week; she is the most recent swimmer to achieve the Triple Crown of

Courtesy of Crystal Lagoons. It almost seems inevitable now when an Olympic champion expands their aquatic reach to the open water. Johnny Weissmuller did it. Gertrude Ederle did it. Greta Andersen did it. John Kinsella did it. Shane Gould did it. Sandy Neilson-Bell did it. Gary Hall Jr. did it. Aaron Peirsol did it. Rebecca

Courtesy of Meidai Sports, Odaiba Marine Park, Tokyo. Yasunari Hirai who finished eighth in the 10 km marathon swim at the 2016 Rio Olympics, improving from his 15th placing at the 2012 London Olympics, has high hopes for a medal in his hometown of Tokyo in August 2020. Like Xin Tong and Fang Yanqiao of