Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
There will be many inspirational speakers and great marathon swimmers from the past 50 years at the Global Open Water Swimming Conference in New York City in June. Among the accomplished swimmers will be South African extreme adventurer Ram Barkai, shown coming out of ice-cold water in Patagonia.
Barkai not only swam in Antarctica and founded the International Ice Swimming Association, but he also swam in Lake Zurich in February and recently completed the Patagonia Extreme Cold Water Challenge, a series of three extreme swims at the tip of South America.
An intense, focused, successful businessman from Cape Town, South Africa who loves to share his passion with cold-water open water swimming, Barkai has experiences that are far removed from the safe mass participation open water swims around the world. Extreme is what he is after. Pushing the limits and exploring no limits and no boundaries are what drives Ram.
Barkai will join many other swimmers of international acclaim who will be celebrated during the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame ceremonies at the United Nations including honorees Drury Gallagher, Fran Crippen, Yuko Matsuzaki, Dr. Harry Huffaker, Anne Cleveland, Bill Goll, Richard Campion and organizations like the Rottnest Channel Swim, NYC Swim and the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation.
International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Certificates of Merit recipients will also be honored and include Cliff Lumsden of Canada, George Young of Canada, Thomas Hoad of Australia, Claudio Plit of Argentina, Jane Katz of the USA Jorge Aurelio Delgado Panchana of Ecuador, Zouheir El Moufti of Morocco, Hatem Seifallah Mohamed Ibraham of Egypt, the Channel Swimming & Pilots Federation, the Midmar Mile and Nell Schmidt.
Copyright © 2011 by World Open Water Swimming Association