David Olvera López from the small town of San Luis Potosí (27, Mexico, World Aquatics bio here, @thefreezewiz) dreamed big, worked hard, and broke Andy Donaldson’s 20 Bridges overall speed record for swimming 45.9 km around Manhattan Island in New York. Olvera, guided by the veteran escort paddler Alex Arévalo of New York Open Water, swam a 5 hours 34 minutes 58 second circumnavigation swim.
By taking advantage of the tidal flows, Olvera entered the Hudson River at 2:00 am on June 26th. Swimming tightly under the watchful eye of Alex Arévalo, Olvera started strong down the Hudson, continued up the East River, hustled across the Harlem River, and then sprinted downstream to the finish. He never let up.
Earlier, he had posted a starkingly accurate premonition on his Instagram page, “After 5 months of intense work, physical and mental workouts, overcoming obstacles and giving it my all, today I start the countdown. In 15 days I leave for New York City to face one of the biggest challenges of my life: swimming around Manhattan Island and attempting to set a new world record for the fastest lap ever recorded.
He did hard pool swims, tough pace sets with little rest, long night swims, and marathon runs in preparation.
Progression of the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim from 1915 to 2025
- Robert Dowling, USA 13 hours 45 minutes in September 1915
- Ida Elionsky, USA 11 hours 35 minutes in September 2016
- Byron Summers, USA 8 hours 56 minutes in September 1927
- Bill Goll, USA 8 hours 39 minutes in July 1930
- Bill Sadlo, USA 8 hours 38 minutes in July 1930
- Sam Shields, USA 8 hours 36 minutes in July 1930
- Diana Nyad, USA 7 hours 57 minutes in October 1975
- Drury Gallagher, USA 7 hours 14 minutes in July 1982
- Paul Asmuth, USA 6 hours 47 minutes 58 seconds in August 1983
- Drury Gallagher, USA 6 hours 42 minutes in September 1983
- Shelley Taylor-Smith, Australia 6 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds in October 1985
- Shelley Taylor-Smith, Australia 5 hours 45 minutes 25 seconds in July 1995
- Oliver Wilkinson, Australia 5 hours 44 minutes 2 seconds in September 2011
- Andy Donaldson, Scotland 5 hours 41 minutes 48 seconds in September 2024
- David Olvera López, Mexico 5 hours 34 minutes 58 seconds in June 2025
Olvera’s test bested the records previously held by a number of International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honor Swimmers including Robert Dowling, Ida Elionsky, Byron Summers, Bill Goll, Bill Sadlo, Diana Nyad, Drury Gallagher, Paul Asmuth, and Shelley Taylor-Smith.
A dream came true today…after a whole lotta hard work and coordination by his support team.
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This is incredible, a world record by a Mexican swimmer. But I don’t understand why the local press, including the New York Times and El Diario, ignored this international news event. We all should feel proud of this accomplishment by David Oliver Lopez.