With a 13 hour 18 minute crossing of the Molokai Channel, Caitlin O’Reilly (New Zealand, 20, MSF bio here, @caitlinnoreilly, shown below) became the youngest person – and 34th swimmer in history – to achieve the Oceans Seven.
But there are 13 other swimmers from around the world who are knocking at the door, just one channel crossing from achieving the Oceans Seven. They are all only missing one successful completion of the Cook Strait in New Zealand, the Tsugaru Channel in Japan, the English Channel between England and France, the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland, the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco, the Catalina Channel in Southern California, or the Molokai Channel in Hawaii to join the Oceans Seven fraternity. They may achieve your goal this year.
The ‘almost-there’ pod of Oceans Seven swimmers include:
- Robert Woodhouse (Australia, 59, MSF bio here, shown above)
- Joe Zemaitis (USA, 45, MSF bio here, IISA bio here @joe.zemaitis)
- John Zemaitis (USA, 41, MSF bio here, IISA bio here)
- Simon Olliver (New Zealand, 60, MSF bio here, IISA bio here)
- Gráinne Moss (née Gunn) (Ireland, 54, MSF bio here)
- Alessandra Rossi Cima (Brazil, 50, MSF bio here, @ale_rossi_cima_swims)
- Lauren Lesyna (USA, 30, MSF bio here, @swimsintheswells)
- Dean Summers (Australia, 66, MSF bio here)
- Marcia Cleveland (USA, 60, MSF bio here, IISA bio here)
- Pat Gallant-Charette (USA, 73, MSF bio here, @gallantcharette)
- Penny Palfrey (Australia, 62, MSF bio here)
- Ryan Utsumi (USA, 46, MSF bio here)
- Steve Walker (USA, 57, MSF bio here)
Several of them will soon by joining O’Reilly and the rest of the Oceans Seven swimmers:
Oceans Seven Swimmers
- Stephen Redmond (Ireland)
- Anna Carin Nordin (Sweden)
- Michelle Macy (USA)
- Darren Miller (USA)
- Adam Walker (UK)
- Kimberley Chambers (New Zealand)
- Antonio Argüelles (Mexico)
- Ion Lazarenco Tiron (Moldavia and Ireland)
- Rohan Dattatrey More (India)
- Abhejali Bernardová (Czech Republic)
- Cameron Bellamy (South Africa)
- Lynton Mortensen (Australia)
- Thomas Pembroke (Australia)
- Nora Toledano Cadena (Mexico)
- Mariel Hawley Dávila (Mexico)
- André Wiersig (Germany)
- Elizabeth Fry (USA)
- Attila Mányoki (Hungary)
- Jonathan Ratcliffe (UK)
- Jorge Crivilles Villanueva (Spain)
- Adrian Sarchet (Guernsey)
- Prabhat Koli (India at 23 years 7 months 5 days, shown below on right)
- Dina Levačić (Croatia)
- Herman van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
- Andy Donaldson (Scotland in 354 days)
- Stephen Junk (Australia)
- Kieron Palframan (South Africa)
- Bárbara Hernández Huerta (Chile)
- Mark Sowerby (Australia)
- Paul Georgescu (Romania)
- Zach Margolis (USA
- Petar Stoychev (Bulgaria in 173 days)
- Nathalie Pohl (Germany)
- Caitlin O’Reilly (New Zealand at the age of 20 years 7 months 15 days)
There are two other young channel swimmers currently in the Oceans Seven hunt: 21-year-old Michael Payne of Australia (shown below on left with one more channel to go) and 19-year-old Anshuman Jhingran of India (shown below in middle). They both have the potential to break the Youngest Oceans Seven male record of Prabhat Koli (India, 23, MSF bio here) who became an Oceans Seven swimmer at 23 years 7 months 5 days.
Five Down, Two To Go
- Andrey Bozhko (Russia, 38, MSF bio here)
- Bengisu Avci (Turkey, 28, MSF bio here)
- Callum Eade (Australia, 52, MSF bio here)
- Christian Jongeneel (Spain, 50, MSF bio here)
- Craig Lenning (USA, 46, MSF bio here)
- Cynthia Aguilar Valdéz (Mexico, 43, MSF bio here)
- Eduardo Collazos Valle (Peru, 54, MSF bio here)
- Forrest Nelson (USA, 62, MSF bio here)
- Guy Moar (Australia, 57, MSF bio here)
- Jim Barber (USA, 65, MSF bio here)
- Joanne Norman (Australia, 54, MSF bio here)
- John Batchelder (USA, 43, MSF bio here)
- Kamil Resa Alsaran (Turkey, 64, MSF bio here)
- Karen Ennis (Great Britain, 52, MSF bio here)
- Luca Pozzi (Italy, 38, MSF bio here)
- M. Tulasai Chaitanya (India, 36, MSF bio here)
- Marty Filipowski (Australia, 61, MSF bio here)
- Matthias Kaßner (Germany, 57, MSF bio here)
- Paul Feltoe (Australia, 51, MSF bio here)
- Paul Leonard (Great Britain, 53, MSF bio here)
- Sarah Thomas (USA, 42, MSF bio here)
- Suwei Chen (China, 57, MSF bio here)
- Toni Enderli (South Africa, 48, MSF bio here)
- Victor Pineiro (Argentina, 48, MSF bio here)
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