Yesterday, Rob Lea (45, USA, MSF bio here, @rob.lea) made history. He became the first human in history to become a dual Oceans Seven swimmer and Seven Summitter with his 11 hour 44 minute crossing of the Tsugaru Channel.

He became the first person in history to achieve the Double Sevens.

Lea made the unfathomable fathomable. He made the unbelievable believable. He made the undoable doable. He faced hypothermia climbing up mountain tops and swimming in the world’s oceans.

He is used to doing the hard. And being the first to achieve difficult feats of endurance.

A former high school and college sprinter and former professional triathlete, Lea became the first and – to date – the only person to complete a Calendar Year Peak and Pond which is a solo completion of a crossing of the English Channel and a summit of Mount Everest. He also completed the summiting of the Mount Everest and the English Channel crossing – a tough climb and crawl only 45 days apart. He swam with black toe nails across the English Channel.

Oceans Seven Journey

• English Channel in July 2019 in 11 hours 47 minutes
• Catalina Channel in August 2021 in 11 hours 14 minutes
• Cook Strait in March 2024 in 8 hours 7 minutes 26 seconds.
• North Channel in August 2024 in 10 hours 36 minutes
• Strait of Gibraltar in October 2025 in 4 hours 20 minutes
• Molokai Channel in November 2025 in 14 hours 36 minutes
• Tsugaru Channel in June 2026 in 11 hours 44 minutes

History of the Oceans Seven and Seven Summits

Lea became the 44th person in history to achieve the Oceans Seven. He is also part of the elite group of 348 mountaineers who have completed the Seven Summits. There has been an average of over 3 people per year completing the Oceans Seven while there have been over 9 people per year completing the Seven Summits.

The first person to complete the Oceans Seven was Stephen Redmond of Ireland in July 2012; the first person to complete the Seven Summits was Richard Bass in April 1985. Oceans Seven

Oceans Seven Swimmers

1. Stephen Redmond (Ireland)
2. Anna Carin Nordin (Sweden)
3. Michelle Macy (USA)
4. Darren Miller (USA)
5. Adam Walker (UK)
6. Kimberley Chambers (New Zealand)
7. Antonio Argüelles (Mexico)
8. Ion Lazarenco Tiron (Moldavia and Ireland)
9. Rohan Dattatrey More (India)
10. Abhejali Bernardová (Czech Republic)
11. Cameron Bellamy (South Africa)
12. Lynton Mortensen (Australia)
13. Thomas Pembroke (Australia)
14. Nora Toledano Cadena (Mexico)
15. Mariel Hawley Dávila (Mexico)
16. André Wiersig (Germany)
17. Elizabeth Fry (USA)
18. Attila Mányoki (Hungary)
19. Jonathan Ratcliffe (UK)
20. Jorge Crivilles Villanueva (Spain)
21. Adrian Sarchet (Guernsey)
22. Prabhat Koli (India)
23. Dina Levačić (Croatia)
24. Herman van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
25. Andy Donaldson (Scotland)
26. Stephen Junk (Australia)
27. Kieron Palframan (South Africa)
28. Bárbara Hernández Huerta (Chile)
29. Mark Sowerby (Australia)
30. Paul Georgescu (Romania)
31. Zach Margolis (USA
32. Petar Stoychev (Bulgaria)
33. Nathalie Pohl (Germany)
34. Caitlin O’Reilly (New Zealand)
35. Ryan Utsumi (USA)
36. Marcia Cleveland (USA)
37. Eduardo Collazos Valle-Guayo (Peru)
38. Rob Woodhouse (Australia)
39. Alessandra Cima, Brazil
40. Bengisu Avci, Turkey
41. Simon Olliver, New Zealand
42. Andreas Waschburger, Germany
43. Joanne Norman, Australia
44. Rob Lea, USA, who simultaneously achieved history’s first Double Sevens

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