Yuko Matsuzaki To Attempt World Record
Yuko Matsuzaki To Swim All-Day Pace In Place
Redondo Beach, California.
Yuko Matsuzaki, a Japanese inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, loves swimming.
Matsuzaki will attempt to break the world record for the Longest Continual Swim in an Endless Pool in Redondo Beach, California on October 4th – 5th.
Dennis Seiler-Holm of Denmark set the current record of 17 hours 7 minutes in a Swim Spa in Denform Expo in Aarhus, Denmark as a charity event [see above].
Seiler-Holm broke the then-existing world record by Chloë McCardel in 16 hours set in February 2014 at the Swimming Pool & Spa Association Pool & Spa Show in Australia. After McCardel broke the record, she answered questions about her only enclosed-swim world record:
Open Water Swimming: How many times did you go to the bathroom?
Chloë McCardel: I went to the bathroom on 5 occasions.
Open Water Swimming: How long were you out of the water?
Chloë McCardel: In sequential order, the minutes taken were 6 minutes, 4 minutes, 8 minutes, 7 minutes and 6 minutes.
Open Water Swimming: What was your stroke count on average?
Chloë McCardel: As an estimate between 55 – 60 strokes per minute, although it did vary throughout the swim. For example at times (maybe 5% of the time), I was doing breaststroke with a dolphin kick or front scull. I would have done backstroke too, but this wasn’t easy with a tether on.
Open Water Swimming: Did you listen to music at all?
Chloë McCardel: No. I didn’t wear any earphones or other devices with audio capacity, nor were there speakers in the spa. There was other music playing at the expo, but I was not aware of it when I was swimming in the spa.
Open Water Swimming: Did your coach-husband communicate with her using a whiteboard or just talking?
Chloë McCardel: My husband, Paul, stayed from 12 am midnight until 1 am and then 7 am – 4 pm. The hours in between, Matthew, the son of the Event Organizer looked after me. After 5 years of supporting my marathons, Paul knows my body language very well. After he asks me something he often knows my response within seconds without any words from myself. Paul spoke to Matthew before he left and Matthew did a great job when he was in charge between 1 pm – 7 am.
And…one of the wonderful things about this record is that I was able to share so much of it with family, friends, expo attendees and online with supporters across the world. For example, in the English Channel when I finish my crossings there is no one on shore and only a small handful of support crew to share it with. Although I use GPS-tracking technology on my ultra-marathons, I have never had the opportunity to share a live feed with video and audio before. It was fantastic. My crew even read out some of the amazing comments supporters had left on my Facebook Marathon Page.
I am coaching a few 2014 English Channel Relay Teams and my Melbourne-based team came down to cheer me on which was very special. It was also very moving to have young children spend up to an hour and a half waiting by the spa side for me to finish.
Matsuzaki, has completed two separate marathon swims over 32 hours in duration in Lake Cane, Orlando as charity swim. The 57-year-old aims to swim for 24 hours in an Endless Pool that will be installed at the Seaside Lagoon in Redondo Beach in Southern California.
The veteran professional marathon swimmer will attempt to break the world record for the Longest Continual Swim in an Endless Pool starting at 11:00 am on Friday October 4th.
“Yuko will swim through the afternoon and evening and overnight with plans to swim for 24 hours in place in an Endless Pool,” explains Steven Munatones. “While there have been other swimmers who have swum 24 hours in a 50m competitive swimming pool or across a lake or river or ocean (see the 24-Hour Club), the Longest Continual Swim in a Spa was one of the training swims performed by Chloë McCardel in 2014 in Australia.
During that swim, Chloë was allowed to rest or go to the bathroom or eat or drink or rest or stretch periodically. She later swam 124 km from Eleuratha to Nassau in the Bahamas over 41 hours 21 minutes in October 2014.”
Yuko, who wrote Marathon Swimming, My Fun Journey, has a long track record of swimming marathons around the world:
* 19 km Jarak-Šabac Marathon Swim in Serbia
* 15 km of International Swimming Marathon of Toroneos Gulf in Greece
* 16 km Trichonida Marathon in Greece
* 30 km Swimming Marathon Kalamata – Koroni in Greece
* 36 km Maratona del Golfo Capri-Napoli in Italy 5 times [listen to her description below]
* 27 km Teraccina Marathon in Italy
* 35 km Riviera Marathon in Italy
* 20 km Trasimeno Marathon in Italy
* 57 km Maratón Internacional Ciudid de Rosario in Argentina 9 times
* 88 km Hernandarias-Parana Marathon in Argentina 5 times
* 57 km Maratón Acuático Rio Coronda in Argentina 2 times
* 25 km Mar del Plata in Argentina
* 35 km Around Atlantic City Marathon Swim in New Jersey, USA 7 times
* 25 km Swim Across The Sound in Connecticut, USA 5 times
* 10 km Round the Sound in Bermuda
* 40 km Traversée international du lac Memphrémagog in Canada 4 times
* 40 km Traversée international du lac St-Jean in Canada
* 27 km Tapes Marathon in Brazil 3 times
* 25 km Lac Du Bourget in France
* 25 km Grace Bay in Turks & Caicos
* 12-hour and 24-hour pool swims on behalf of the YMCA Youth Scholarship Fund in Orlando, Florida
Munatones continued, “Yuko’s attempt will take place at the annual global open water swimming conference called WOWSA Ocean Fest where swimmers from around the globe will gather to discuss the state of their sport between October 4th – 6th.
Among Olympic medalists, FINA world champions, professional marathon swimming champions, winter swimming champions, ice swimmers, stage swimmers, marathon swimmers, English Channel swimmers, Guinness World Record holders, and young and old open water swimmers of all ages, Yuko will be permitted to stop for restroom breaks or to eat for up to 5 minutes every 60 minutes.”
In addition to Matsuzaki’s record attempt, the WOWSA Ocean Fest will host the annual WOWSA Awards, the Guinness World Records celebration recognizing world record holders in the open water swimming world, and the Redondo Beach Coastal Challenge that includes 100m, 200m, 1 km, 5 km and 10 km marathon swims along Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes Peninsula.
While Matsuzaki is swimming on Saturday, October 5th, swimmers and speakers will cheer her on during an all-day festival with educational and inspirational speakers, ‘Ocean Ready’ workshops for aspiring swimmers of all levels, beach vendors, games and a beer garden by Golden Road Brewing.
WOWSA Ocean Fest luminaries and speakers include:
* Craig Dietz, a marathon swimmer born without arms or legs
* 5-time Olympic gold medalist Aaron Peirsol
* 2012 Olympic marathon swimming silver medalist, NCAA champion and world champion Haley Anderson
* 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathon swimmer Jordan Wilimovsky
* Aquapreneur and para swimmer Jamal Hill
* International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honorees Ned Denison (Ireland) and Steven Munatones
* International Swimming Hall of Famers Shelley Taylor-Smith (Australia) and Paul Asmuth
* world record holders Nejib Belhedi (Tunisia) and Pablo Fernández Álvarez (Spain)
* North Channel renowned escort pilot Brian Meharg (Ireland)
* International Ice Swimming Association founder Ram Barkai
* 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee and WOWSA Man of the Year Ion Lazarenco Tiron (Republic of Moldava)
* Guinness World Record holder and ice swimmer and WOWSA Award winner Josef Köberl (Austria)
* Oceans Seven swimmer and Round Barbados pioneer Cameron Bellamy (South Africa)
* Becca Mann, first person to complete the Maui Nui Channel Swim
“While Yuko will eat traditional Japanese food, like okayu, during her 24-hour Endless Pool swim,” said WOWSA CEO Quinn Fitzgerald. “After her swim, together with everyone the festival will end on Saturday with a Hawaiian Luau themed WOWSA Awards show held in collaboration with The Guinness World Records where Yuko will also be honored.
The WOWSA Awards ceremony will honor world record holders including Nejib Belhedi’s 120 km 76 hour 30 minute non-stop swim in Tunisia at the age of 66, Alex Kostich for his unprecedented 9.8 km swim around Pitcairn Island, Sarah Ferguson for her unprecedented 61 km swim around Easter Island, Pablo Fernández Álvarez for the fastest 100 km ocean swim in history, and Nuala Moore’s 1-mile swim from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean through the Drake Passage around Cape Horn.
The WOWSA Awards will also honor the World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year (Ion Lazarenco Tiron of Moldava), the World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year (Aleksandra Bednarek of Poland), the World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year (Ross Edgley of England), and the World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year (Icebears Hintertux of Austria).”
“Swimmers like Yuko are outstanding examples of our sport’s most personable and passionate ambassadors,” described Munatones. “Yuko and all the WOWSA Award winners and Guinness World Record holders have a deep-seated adventurous nature that enables them to achieve the most difficult, longest, coldest, most risky swims in the history of mankind.”
For more information on the WOWSA Ocean Fest, visit www.wowsaoceanfest.com.
Photo of Yuko Matsuzaki speaking at the United Nations is courtesy of Skip Storch.
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