Ross Edgeley (the man who swam around Great Britain) couldn’t decide which world record to break: ‘the world’s longest current-neutral swim in an ocean’ around the balmy seas of Bermuda, or ‘the longest staged sea swim’ in the icy waters and whirlpools of the British Isles. He was faced with a choice between an arguably more impressive feat of athleticism and an undeniably great story – the deciding factor? A Royal Marine Captain told him to go for the story and the glory of a swim around Britain, because a current-neutral swim in Bermuda ‘just sounds a bit shit.’
With her latest record, Australian swimmer Chloë McCardel has done both.
The unapproachable athletic feat: in 2014 she swam the Exuma Sound between two islands in the Bahamas. South Eleuthera to Nassau; 124.4 kilometres; over 41 hours; the longest uninterrupted, unassisted ocean swim ever and an unassailable feat of endurance speed (she laid down the fastest average speed of any unassisted swim over 100k).
The undeniably great story: this year she swam across the English Channel for the 44th time, breaking the all-time record for the sheer volume of crossings. It makes her the ‘Queen of the Channel’ after she left the ‘King’ (Kevin Murphy) behind with her 35th swim last year.
In twelve years of Channel swimming, she overtook four decades of work for Murphy and over three for the long-reigning queen, Alison Streeter MBE.
The first question people ask when they hear about these swims is ‘why?’, so I ask Chloë.
This article has a new home!
You can read the rest of my chat with Chloë in the fantastic Dure Magazine HERE.
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