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Marathon swimming is a class ofopen water swimming defined by long distances, with 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) being the unofficially held minimum distance. Routes are typically geographically based or buoy based. Geographical routes include crossings of channels and lakes, circumnavigations of islands, and stretches of coast lines or rivers. Buoy-routes are mainly found in competition events.
Perhaps the most famous route in marathon swimming crosses theEnglish Channel, first accomplished in 1875 byCaptain Matthew Webb in 21h:45m. The first woman to complete the crossing wasGertrude Ederle 14h:39m in 1926 as a 19 year old, thereby setting a new fastest known time by 1h:54m by employing thecrawl stroke technique.
Finish times for routes are highly dependent on environmental conditions and cultural context. Environmental factors include water temperature, tides, surface currents, and wind-chop. Cultural factors include swim direction, allowed equipment and swimmer assistance. These may be established by route convention (e.g. English Channel), by event organizers, or by personal goals, with Marathon Swimmers Federation rules often used as a foundation. Since environmental and cultural factors can vary dramatically, comparisons of finish times are often debatable.
TheTriple Crown of Open Water Swimming comprises three marathon swims: (1) 21 mi (34 kilometers) across theEnglish Channel, (2) 20.1 mi (32.3 kilometers) betweenCatalina Island and the mainland in Southern California, USA, and (3) 28.5 mi (45.9 kilometers) aroundManhattan Island in New York City, USA. The first known completion of triple was in 1987 byAlison Streeter MBE of English Channel fame.
TheOcean's seven comprises seven channel swims: (1)North Channel between Ireland and Scotland, (2)Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand, (3)Molokai Channel between Oahu and Molokai Islands in Hawaii, (4)English Channel between England and France, (5) Catalina Channel between Santa Catalina Island and Southern California, (6)Tsugaru Strait between the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido in Japan, and (7)Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa. The first known completion of the septet was in 2012 by Steve Redmond of Ireland.
In theOlympic Games, themarathon swimming event distance is 10 kilometers (6.21 miles).[1]
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