James Stephen Fossett was an American businessman and a record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer. He was the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon and in a fixed-wing aircraft. He made his fortune in the financial services industry and held world records for five nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo flight fixed-wing aircraft pilot.
Gertrude Caroline Ederle was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder in five events. On August 6, 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Among other nicknames, the press sometimes called her "Queen of the Waves".
Cynthia Maria "Cindy" Nicholas, was a long distance swimmer and a politician in Ontario, Canada. In 1977, she became the first woman to complete a two-way crossing of the English Channel. From 1987 to 1990 she was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
Mihir Sen was a famous Indian long distance swimmer and lawyer. He was the first Asian to conquer the English Channel from Dover to Calais in 1958, and did so in the fourth fastest time. He was the only man to swim the oceans of the five continents in one calendar year (1966). These included the Palk Strait, Dardanelles, Bosphorus, Gibraltar, and the entire length of the Panama Canal. This unique achievement earned him a place in The Guinness Book of Records as the "world's greatest long distance swimmer".
David Meca Medina is a long distance swimmer from Spain, who has swum from mainland Spain to Ibiza among his exploits. He won gold at the 2005 FINA World Championships in Montreal for the men's open water 25 km.
Alison Jane Streeter MBE is a British long-distance swimmer.
Petar Stoychev is a Bulgarian swimmer who is one of the most successful long distance marathon swimmers in history. He is one of the greatest marathon swimmers of all time and an honor swimmer in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. Stoychev has 11 consecutive titles of a major international open water marathon swimming FINA series since 2001 with more than 60 wins in individual swimming marathons. So far, he has swum over 60,000 km in pools, rivers, lakes, seas and oceans. Petar Stoychev has won 11 consecutive victories at the Traversée Internationale du Lac Memphrémagog in Magog, Canada (34 km) and at Lac Saint-Jean in Roberval, Canada (32 km). Also, he has won the Ohrid Lake, Macedonia swimming marathon 11 consecutive times (30 km). His swimming achievements include swimming around the Manhattan Island in 2010 and winning the extreme Cadiz Freedom Swim in 2011.
Kevin Murphy has swum the English Channel 34 times, more than any other man in history. The overall title of greatest number of successful English Channel swims is held by Chloë McCardel with 44 to her name.
Edward Harry Temme was an English swimmer and insurance clerk.
Yvette Tulip Hlaváčová is a Czech former swimmer.
Philip Rush is a firefighter and long distance swimmer who is the current world record holder for the fastest two and three way swim of the English Channel which he completed in 1987 in a time of 28 h 21 mins
Jon Erikson was an American long distance swimmer who was the first of only three people to have ever completed a three way swim of the English Channel. A physical education teacher at the time, he completed the swim in a time of 38 h 27 mins in 1981.
(1st leg – 10 h 10 mins, 2nd leg – 13 h 14 mins, 3rd leg – 15h 103 mins)
Yuri (Yury) Kudinov is a long-distance swimmer from Russia.
Chad Hundeby was an American long-distance swimmer.
Penny Lee Dean is an American long distance swimmer who began her career with her swim across frigid San Francisco bay at age 10. She is best known for having the fastest time for a woman to swim from Catalina to California in 7:15:55 in 1976, and the fastest time to swim the English Channel in 1978 in 7:40.
Steffen Deibler is a German former competitive swimmer from Biberach an der Riß. From 2009 to 2018 he was the world record holder for the 50 m butterfly.
Groupama 3 is a Ultim class high performance racing sailing trimaran designed for transoceanic record-setting IDEC SPORTBanque Populaire VII, Lending Club 2, IDEC 3). She is one of the world's fastest ocean-going sailing vessels and the current holder of the Jules Verne Trophy for circumnavigation of the world. She was originally skippered by French yachtsman Franck Cammas, with a crew of ten and sponsored by the French insurance company Groupama. She is currently skippered by Françis Joyon.
Enrique Tirabocchi was an Argentinian marathon swimmer who in August 1926 became the fourth person to successfully swim across the English Channel. He was the first person to swim from France to England and finished the swim in 16 hours and 33 minutes, beating the record set by Matthew Webb when he was the first to make the crossing more than 50 years earlier.
Nejib Belhedi is a Tunisian Marathon Icy and Iron open-water swimmer.
