Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Igor de Souza has lived much of his adult life on, in or near the open water.

An open water swimming administrator for the Brazilian Swimming Federation and race director for the FINA 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup race in Santos, Brazil, he was inducted in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 2004 as an Honour Swimmer and has served as a delegate, coach and manager for the Brazilian national open water swimming team.

His two-way 18 hour 33 minute crossing of the English Channel in 1997 was unique for two interesting reasons:

1. He negative-split his swim (9 hours 31 minutes on the first leg and 9 hours 2 minutes on the second leg).
2. During his two-way crossing, both his first leg and his second leg were the fastest times for English Channel crossings in that year.

A year previously, he had gained valuable channel experience with an 11 hour 6 minute crossing that was the best male time of the year by the Channel Swimming Association.

The personable Brazilian won the 48 km Manhattan Island Marathon Swim in 2001 in 7 hours 19 minutes and finished the 28.5-mile circumnavigation three other times (in 1991 in 7 hours 19 minutes, in 1994 in 7 hours 8 minutes, and in 1988 in 7 hours 48 minutes).

He started swimming International Marathon Swimming Association events in 1985 and was ranked in the Top 10 between 1987 and 1994. For 15 years, he competed all over the world, winning some races and finishing all races that he started. He swam 36 km Around-the-Island Marathon Swim in Atlantic City, USA an impressive streak of ten 22.5-mile races in all kinds of conditions and temperatures.

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