Florence May Chadwick was an American swimmer known for long-distance open water swimming. She was the first woman to swim across the English Channel in both directions, setting a time record each time. She was also the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Bosporus, and the Dardanelles.
Dr. Vicki Keith Munro, CM, O.Ont, LLD, ChPC is a Canadian retired marathon swimmer, coach and advocate for disabled athletes. Her accomplishments include the first crossing of all five Great Lakes, a 100 hour swim and the world record distance of 80.2 kilometers swum using the butterfly stroke. Many people consider Keith as the face of marathon swimming.
Diana Nyad is an American author, journalist, motivational speaker, and long-distance swimmer. Nyad gained national attention in 1975 when she claimed to swim around Manhattan in record time, and in 1979 when she swam from Bimini, The Bahamas to Juno Beach, Florida.
George Young was a Canadian marathon swimmer who, on 15–16 January 1927, became the first person to swim the 22 mile channel between Catalina Island and the mainland of California. Though familiar to the Toronto swimming community, Young was only seventeen and a relative unknown in America, lacking the national recognition of a number of his competitors. Around three thousand spectators on Catalina Island watched the race begin. Young's 22 mile swim began with the sound of a starter's pistol on the Northeastern edge of Catalina Island at the narrow point of the Harbor at Isthmus Cove at 11:21 AM on Saturday, January 15, 1927, and ended the next morning after 15 hours 44 minutes at 3:06 AM on the rocky shores of Point Vicente Lighthouse, in Rancho Palos Verdes, South of downtown Los Angeles.
Edith van Dijk is a Dutch swimmer and 6-fold world champion. She is Holland's most successful open water swimmer and long distance swimmer, whose career started in 1990 taking part in the Dutch IJsselmeermarathon.
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.
Erica Lara Rose was an American competition swimmer who specialized in long-distance and open water events. Rose was a 5 km World Aquatics champion in Perth, Australia at only fifteen in 1998, was a four-time Pan American swim marathon gold medalist, a Pan Pacific 3.1 mile champion in 1997 in Melbourne, Australia, and a ten-time National Open Water swim marathon champion at 5 km, 10 km, and 25 km distances between 1997 and 2007. She competed with Cleveland's Lake Erie Silver Dolphins, Hawken High School Swim Team, the Northwestern University Swim Team, and for twelve years with the USA Swimming National Team.
Florence Chambers, known by her married name Florence Newkirk by May 1964, was an American competition swimmer who competed in the 100-meter backstroke for the United States at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, finishing fourth in the finals. She was a successful swim coach and instructor who started the Florence Chambers Swim Club in the mid-1920's, and later became a leading business woman, community leader, and philanthropist in San Diego County.
Andrew Douglas Gemmell is an American competition swimmer who specialized in long-distance freestyle events. He swam for the University of Georgia, helping then to place 5th in the NCAA in 2014, and was a member of the 2012 United States Olympic Team, where he competed in the 1,500-meter freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. At the Olympics, he finished ninth with a time of 14:59:05, missing the semi-finals by one place. He took several distance swimming medals, with a gold at the 5 km team event in the 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai, and took medals at the Pan Pacific Championships in 2014 and the Pan American Games in 2015 in the 1500 m, 5 km and 10 km events.
John Flanagan is a male freestyle swimmer from the United States who specialized in middle distance and Open water distance events. He swam for Honolulu's exceptional Punhou School Swim Team where he was a three-time state champion in the 200 and 500-meter freestyle. After swimming for Auburn University, he won a 5 Km gold team medal at the 1998 World Aquatics Championships in Perth, Australia. He competed in and placed well in a number of USA Swimming National Championships through 2001, winning a 10 Km event at Daytona Beach in 2001, and receiving several second places in 5 Km events. In 2000, he won Hawaii's Surf and Sea North Shore Challenge, and was a five-time winner of the Waikiki Roughwater Challenge. In July 2010, he placed fourth in the 10 Km swim at the World Competitions in Fukuoka, Japan with a time of 2:01:6.5. He would later compete professionally in triathlon and in 2001 work as a swim coach at Kamehameha Swim Club in Honolulu.
Nathan Stooke is a male freestyle swimmer from the United States who was part of a World Aquatic team championship bronze medal for America in the 25 Km Open Water Swim in Perth, Australia in 1998. In August 1997, after winning an individual Bronze medal at the Pan Pacific Championships in Japan, he was rated third best in the world in the 25 Km Open Water event. In 2003, he founded Wisper Internet, an Illinois-based wireless high speed provider of internet service to rural areas, and has served as their CEO.
Ana Marcela Jesus Soares da Cunha is a Brazilian swimmer who specializes in the open water swimming marathon. She is considered one of the best open water swimmers in history, having obtained 17 medals in FINA World Aquatics Championships. She has also received FINA’s Female World Open Water Swimmer Of The Year award six times. Her countless achievements are comparable only to those of Larisa Ilchenko, another multi-medalist in World Championships.
Aurélie Muller is a French swimmer, who specializes in long-distance freestyle events and open water marathon. She won the 10-kilometer competition at the 2015 world championship in Kazan, Russia and at the 2017 world championship in Budapest, Hungary.
Ashley Grace Twichell is an American competition swimmer who specializes in long-distance freestyle and open-water events. She placed seventh in the 10 kilometer open water swim at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Twichell's age at her Olympic Games debut, 32 years of age, made her the oldest American swimmer first-timer at an Olympic Games since 1908.
Linda Carol McGill, also known by her married name Linda Kruk, is an Australian former competition swimmer noted both for achievements at the Commonwealth Games and in long-distance swimming. At age 30, McGill set a record for the fastest and only swim around Hong Kong Island which stood for over 40 years, and still holds the record for the fastest swim in a counterclockwise direction.
Stella Taylor was an American long-distance swimmer born in Bristol, England, best known for crossing the English Channel twice and holding Guinness Book of Records recognition as the oldest woman to swim across the Channel. She made her first English channel crossing in August 1973 in 15:25, from England to France, when she was around the age of 43, repeating the swim in 1975 in 18:15 at the age of 45.
Kathryn Eileen Grimes is an American competitive swimmer. At the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, she won silver medals in the 1500 meter freestyle and the 400 meter individual medley. She placed fourth in the 800 meter freestyle at the 2020 Summer Olympics, where she was the youngest member of the US Olympic Team at 15 years of age.
Dario Verani is an Italian competitive open water swimmer. At the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, he won the world title and gold medal in the 25 kilometre open water swim. He won the silver medal in the 25 kilometre open water swim at the 2022 European Aquatics Championships and the bronze medal in the 5 kilometre open water swim at the 2020 European Aquatics Championships. He was champion in the 5 kilometre open water swim at the inaugural Mediterranean Beach Games in 2015.
Kyle Lee is an Australian open water swimmer. At the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, he placed fifth in the 25 kilometre open water swim and eighth in the 5 kilometre open water swim. As part of the 2022 Marathon Swim World Series, he won two silver medals in the 4×1500 metre open water team relay. He is the 2022 Rottnest Channel Swim winner.
Margaret Ravoir was an American swimmer who completed in the Olympics and would become best known for winning the widely attended Canadian National Exhibition women's 10-mile swim in Lake Ontario, each of the years from 1930 to 1932.
United States 