Massimo Voltolina is an Italian endurance athlete who has completed triathlons, the English Channel and other long-distance events.

He explains why marathon swimming is enticing to him, “It’s a way to get into deep contact with nature. When I am walking through the silence of the mountains I experience a special peace, when I swim in the ocean I feel small and helpless in the grip of an immensely powerful and unknown force and yet I am wholly at ease because there is this intimate contact with the sea.” Judging from videos from his unprecedented Progetto Adriatico, a 85K swim from Italy to Albania on September 4-5th, it is easy to imagine how a swimmer could feel small and helpless in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The swim took him 23 hours and 44 minutes.

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