Diana Nyad is an American author, journalist, motivational speaker, and long-distance swimmer. Nyad gained national attention in 1975 when she swam around Manhattan and in 1979 when she swam from North Bimini, The Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Florida. In 2013, on her fifth attempt and at age 64, she became the first person claiming to have swum from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage, swimming from Havana to Key West. The crossing has not been formally ratified by any recognized marathon swimming governing body.
The Rottnest Channel Swim is an annual open water swimming event from Cottesloe Beach through Gage Roads to Rottnest Island, off the coast of Western Australia, near Perth.
Jade Edmistone is an Australian breaststroke swimmer, who is the former world-record holder in the 50 m breaststroke at both short and long course formats of the event.
Nicole Lee Haislett is an American former competitive swimmer who was a three-time Olympic gold medalist, a former world and American record-holder, and an eight-time American national college champion. During her international swimming career, Haislett won twenty-two medals in major international championships, including fourteen golds.
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.
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.
Kimberley Smith is a New Zealand middle-distance and long-distance runner who retired in 2016.
Larisa Dmitriyevna Ilchenko is a Russian long-distance swimmer. She has won eight world titles and a gold at the 2008 Olympics.
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 1997-2007. 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.
Ranomi Kromowidjojo is a retired Dutch swimmer of mixed Dutch-Javanese Surinamese origin who mainly specialises in sprint freestyle events. She is a triple Olympic champion, winning the gold medal in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the 2008 Olympics, and in the 50 m freestyle and 100 m freestyle at the 2012 Olympics. Kromowidjojo holds the world record in the 50 meter freestyle short course, and as part of the Dutch team she holds the world record in the 4×50 m freestyle relay. She formerly held world records in the 4 × 100 m and 4 × 200 m freestyle relays. She has won a total of 39 medals in FINA World Championship events.
Spyridon "Spyros" Gianniotis is a Greek competitive swimmer who specialises in long-distance and open-water freestyle events. He is an Olympic silver medalist, two-time World Champion, World Cup gold medalist, and two-time European Champion. A five-time Olympian, Gianniotis has won a total of 15 medals in major international long-course competition, totalling 5 gold, 5 silver, and 5 bronze spanning the Olympics, the World Championships, the World Cup and the European Championships. In 2011 he won the World Open Water Swimmer of the Year award, becoming the first and only Greek swimmer to earn that distinction.
Karen Burton is an American former competition swimmer who specialized in long-distance freestyle and open water events. While competing in the 25-kilometer open-water event, she represented the United States at the 1998 World Aquatics Championships in Perth, Western Australia, and took a bronze medal in the 1991 World Aquatics Championships. In Open Water championships sponsored by USA Swimming, she placed first in six national open water swimming champion competitions, which included three 15 km (9.3-mile) races and one 25 km (15.5-mile) race.
Sharon van Rouwendaal is a Dutch swimmer and the Olympic gold medalist in the 10 km open water marathon at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Chloë McCardel is an open water swimmer and swim coach from Melbourne, Australia.
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.
Ferry Weertman is a Dutch former competitive swimmer who specialises in long-distance freestyle and open water events. He is the Olympic gold medalist in the 10 km open water marathon at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Tamsin Cook is an Australian swimmer and the former junior world champion in the 400-meter freestyle. After a neck injury in 2018 she retired from swimming, but returned in 2020 and qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Kylie Jacqueline Masse is a Canadian competitive swimmer. She is a four-time Olympic medallist, having tied for the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 100 m backstroke and then won silver medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics in both the 100 m and 200 m backstroke and a bronze medal in the 4x100 m medley. Masse is a two-time world champion in the 100 m backstroke, breaking the eight year old world record in the process, which she held until July 2018. While winning her title in Budapest at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships she became the first Canadian woman to become a world champion in a swimming event. She subsequently became the first Canadian woman to defend her world title at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships. She is currently the captain for the Toronto Titans of the International Swimming League.
MV Shelley Taylor-Smith is a ferry owned by the Public Transport Authority and operated under contract by Captain Cook Cruises on Transperth services on the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia.
Meenakshi Pahuja is an Indian lecturer and marathon swimmer. After a successful career as a competitive swimmer, she became a teacher at Lady Shri Ram College, and later entered open water swimming. She received a 2018 Nari Shakti Puraskar award.
