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Who Will Be The First Octogenarian To Swim The English Channel?

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I think an 80-year-old will swim across the English Channel within the next 10-15 years.

There are several trends and issues why this Octogenarian Channel Swim is a reasonable expectation.

Octogenarian Success in Extreme & Endurance Sports

A number of athletes over the age of 80 have succeeded in marathon running, mountaineering, and triathlons – and there is no reason why channel swimmers cannot be equally successful.

Fauja Singh, known as the Turbaned Tornado (see photo on right below), a retired farmer and British Sikh marathon runner originally from Punjab, Indian origin, ran a full 42 km marathon at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon on October 16th 2011 in 8 hours 11 minutes – at the age of 100 years.

92-year-old Dr. Mathea Allansmith from Koloa, Hawaii (see middle photo below) became the oldest woman to run a marathon, the Honolulu Marathon in December 2022, in 11 hours 19 minutes.

Tamae Watanabe of Japan (see photo on left below) is the oldest woman to climb Mount Everest – at the age of 73 – when she successfully summited on May 19th 2012.

Yuichiro Miura of Aomori, Japan (see his documentary below) summited Mount Everest on May 23rd 2013 at the age of 80 years and 224 days. It was his third summit of the world’s highest mountain. He later said that he plans to attempt again in his 90’s. Min Bahadur Sherchan attempted to climb up Mount Everest in 2017 at the age of 85, but he passed away at Base Camp in 2017.

Hiromu Inada of Chiba, Japan (shown on left below) completed a full IRONMAN Triathlon World Championship (3.86 km swim + bike 180 km bike + 42 run) in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii on October 13th 2018 at the age of 85 years and 328 days – and plans to do another one in his 90’s.

Cherie Gruenfeld of Cathedral City, USA (shown on right below) became the oldest female to complete the IRONMAN World Championship in October 2022, at 78 years and 3 months. She finished in 16 hours 20 minutes, passing Harriet Anderson who was 77 years and 11 months when she completed the same race in 2013.

One of the oldest climbers of Mount Everest was Sir Ranulph Fiennes who was 65 when he summited Mount Everest in 2009. A well-known British explorer and writer, Guinness World Records called Fiennes the world’s greatest living explorer in 1984.

The Oldest Channel Swimmers in History

In comparison to the oldest dryland extreme athletes, who are some of the oldest channel swimmers in the world? I believe these older aquatic adventurers should be described and held in the highest esteem as the elders in mountaining, marathon running, and triathlons.

  • Dr. Otto Thaning of South Africa completed a 33.5 km crossing of the English Channel at the age of 73 years and 6 months in 12 hours 52 minutes in 2014
  • Linda Ashmore of Great Britain completed a 33.5 km crossing of the English Channel at the age of 71 years and 305 days in 16 hours 22 minutes in 2018.
  • Toshio Tominaga of Japan completed a 19.5 km crossing of the Tsugaru Channel at the age of 73 in 9 hours 58 minutes in 2016
  • Pat Gallant-Charette of the USA completed a 19.5 km crossing of the Tsugaru Channel at the age of 61 in 19 hours 36 minutes in 2012
  • Toshio Ogawa of Japan completed a 23 km crossing of the Cook Strait at the age of 60 in 11 hours 51 minutes in 2015
  • Elizabeth Fry of the USA completed a 23 km crossing of the Cook Strait at the age of 60 in 9 hours 32 minutes in 2019
  • Mike Spalding of the USA completed a 42 km crossing of the Molokai Channel at the age of 60 in 15 hours 15 minutes in 2007
  • Pat Gallant-Charette of the USA completed a 42 km crossing of the Molokai Channel at the age of 66 in 23 hours 54 minutes in 2017
  • Andrew Keay of Australia completed a 35 km crossing of the North Channel at the age of 60 years and 12 days in 14 hours 30 minutes in July 2022
  • Pat Gallant-Charette of the USA completed a 35 km crossing of the North Channel at the age of 65 years and 204 days in 14 hours 22 minutes in 2016
  • Dr. Euler Konrad Paul Herbet of Germany completed a 14.4 km crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar at the age of 74 in 4 hours 9 minutes in 2009
  • Maria del Rosario Tomasena Alzuni of Spain completed a 14.4 km crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar at the age of 77 in 6 hours 23 minutes in 2023
  • Pat Marzulli of the USA completed a 32.3 km crossing of the Catalina Channel at the age of 69 years and 312 days in 15 hours 29 minutes in 2018
  • Carol Schumacher Hayden of the USA completed a 32.3 km crossing of the Catalina Channel at the age of 66 years and 59 days in 15 hours 2 minutes in 2016
  • Dr. Otto Thaning of South Africa completed a 7.5 km crossing from Robben Island to Cape Town at the age of 80 in 2 hours 52 minutes in 2021 (see below with Roger Finch, Lewis Pugh, and Martin Goodman)

Over the next two decades, all these channel and marathon swimming age records are expected to fall.

Aging Trends

The sport of marathon swimming and channel swimming is gradually seeing more and more people over the age of 60 completing channel crossings and marathon swims. And nearly all of them are still swimming and plan to keep swimming, at least into their 90’s.

Leading Contenders

If we simply look at what Pat Gallant-Charette (shown above) has done over the last few years (e.g., a 19.6 km Santa Barbara Channel crossing in California in 9 hours 22 minutes, a 20.5 km Sea of Galilee crossing in Israel in 8 hours 22 minutes, a 26.2 km Bristol Channel crossing in the UK in 12 hours 55 minutes, a 23.5 km Lake Malawi crossing in Africa in 13 hours 5 minutes, and a 26.4 km Lake Zurich crossing in Switzerland in 13 hours 10 minutes), the 72-year-old retired nurse from Maine has a lot of marathon swimming left under her swim cap.

Currently, Dr. Otto Thaning holds the record as the oldest person (at 73 years and 6 months) to swim across the English Channel. It is a good bet that any one of these swimmers may reset Dr. Thaning’s age record across the English Channel:

  • Michael Read (shown below), going strong at 83 years old with a 10 hour 24.5 km Toroneos Gulf Marathon
  • Linda Ashmore (now 77, shown below on right), going strong at 71 with a 16 hour 22 minute 33.5 km English Channel crossing
  • Susan Oldham (now 77, shown below on left), going strong at 71 with a 10 hour 40 minute 19.8 km Rottnest Channel crossing
  • Kevin Murphy, going strong at 74 years with a recent English Channel relay
  • Pat Gallant-Charette, going strong at 72 with a 13 hour 10 minute 26.4 km Lake Zurich crossing
  • Jim McConica (now 72), going strong at 69 with a 5 hour 33 minute 17.7 km circumnavigation of Anacapa Island
  • Jim Clifford (now 71), going strong at 69 with a 6 hour 1 minute 19.2 km crossing of Lake Tahoe
  • Paula Yankauskas (shown below in middle), going strong at 69 years with a 21 hour 50 minute 39.6 km crossing of Lake Memphremagog
  • Sally Minty-Gravett, MBE (now 66), going strong at 65 with a 15 hour 30 minute 33.5 km crossing of the English Channel
  • Liz Fry (now 64), going strong at 63 with a 12 hour 24 minute high-altitude 34.2 km crossing of Lake Tahoe
  • Ned Denison (now 65), going strong at 62 with a 10 hour 10 minutes 32 km Los Cabos Acuarium

Why Is This Possible?

  • Muscle mass and muscular stamina are required to cross the English Channel, but many aging Baby Boomers among the elite marathon swimmers are not experiencing sarcopenia as did previous generations of octogenarians.
  • Their mindset is just plain different. When Doc Counsilman crossed the English Channel at the age of 59 in 1979, it was front page news. Now, among aging Baby Boomers, 59-year-olds are considered to be on the young side of the aging equation.
  • While swimmer’s physiology and capability to withstand cold water and cold conditions decreases substantially the older we become, the average water temperatures in the English Channel are also rising.
  • Training is more sophisticated and nuanced now with nutrition, sleep, recovery, mobility, flexibility, and functional strength playing key roles in making older athletes faster, stronger, and more resilient.
  • Expectations have risen. Active athletes now in their 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s are focusing on their health with an eye towards very long health spans and athletic careers. Swimmers around the world have rising expectations. These expectations are what they think they can do and what other swimmers think they can do. With these high expectations, swimmers are more likely to make channel attempts and, eventually, will be more likely to succeed.

I think active swimmers in their 80’s will become much more commonplace in the future. In the 1970’s, doing marathon swims and channel crossings in your 50’s were rare. In modern times, 50-somethings attempting channel crossings is anything but rare. Same with 60-year-olds among today’s swimming community.

The future looks bright(er), especially the older we get.

Steven Munatones admitted, “I would very nice love to attempt and complete a 33.5 km crossing of the English Channel when I am 80 years old. In order to achieve that goal, I need to do the following things along the way.”

  • Mindset: maintain ikigai or a reason for being (a concept in the Japanese culture). This is easy for me with 4 children and a wife whose lives I am always deeply interested in and who I always want to help and support in any ways possible.
  • Motivation: Finding my ikigai required an identification and reaffirmation of my interests and strengths – which remains swimming for distance and in rough water and staying physical strong and aerobically fit.
  • Muscle: Sarcopenia or the loss of muscle and strength that can happen when we get older and do less physical activity. This is offset by swimming and doing KAATSU daily.
  • Luck: So far, my life has been blessed by good fortune. When I had a heart attack, my son saved me. When I had 6 clots, they occurred in the arm and I was near a top-notch hospital that did a quick emergency surgery. If I can steer clear of unforeseen accidents and unexpected injuries or health scares, I should be OK.

© 2023 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline

World Open Water Swimming Federation.

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