Cristian Mitrică swam across the Sea of Galilee in Israel two days ago.
It was a highly unusual crossing performed at highly unusual times.
On October 7th, Hamas launched an unexpected military operation from Palestine into Israel. Thousands of rockets were shot into Israel with a simultaneous attack by land. Palestinian fighters penetrated deep into territory under Israeli control while fighting their way into military bases, temporarily taking over Israeli settlements, and taking Israeli hostages back into the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli government, military, and people were shocked by the attack. Their response was quick as Israel formally declared war on Hamas the next morning on October 8th while Mitrica found himself on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
Paul Georgescu reported, “Mitrică became the fastest Romanian to swim across the lake, located 200 meters below sea level, in the northeast of Israel. The Sea of Galilee is located close to the border with Lebanon. He swam the 20.5 km in 8 hours and 9 minutes under very difficult conditions: 35°C air temperature and 29°C water temperature.”
Mitrică said, “I had this stability project, and the war caught me here in Israel. In the end, the authorities allowed me to swim and I was more motivated to finish it in a spirit of solidarity with the dramatic situation the Israeli people are going through.”
At the end of August, Mitrică, together with two other Romanians, Florin Tomos and Mihai Holban, successfully crossed the Strait of Gibraltar in 5 hours 1 minute. Mitrică also served on Paul Georgescu’s crossing of the 35 km North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland in August 2022.
For a list of swimmers who have successfully crossed the Sea of Galilee (74 crossings in total), visit the Galilee Marathon Swimming Association website here, compiled by Guy Cohen and Eyal Schachner.
Epilogue: Mitrică drove his car after his crossing directly to the airport. His flight was scheduled to take off at 8 pm but it was ultimately delayed until 3 am. He arrived in Bucharest, Romania the next day by 7 am.
Prologue: Mitrică had his first swimming lesson 9 years ago when he had a knee operation and could not run anymore.
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