List of successful English Channel swimmers

This is a list of notable successful swims across the English Channel.^[1]

First attempts

After a seaman had floated across the Channel on a bundle of straw, Matthew Webb became the first to make the crossing without the aid of artificial buoyancy. His first attempt ended in failure, but on August 25, 1875, he started from Admiralty Pier in Dover and made the crossing in 21 hours and 45 minutes, despite challenging tides (which delayed him for 5 hours) and a jellyfish sting.^[2]

Professor Frederick Cavill born of London (1839) completed the second successful swim crossing of the English Channel from Cap Griz Nez in France to South Foreland Lighthouse, England in 1877. Although Cavill failed in his first attempt to swim across the English Channel in 1876, he succeeded the following year and completed the crossing on the 22nd August 1877, two years after Captain Mathew Webb, but in the much faster time of just over 12 hours. Professor Cavill emigrated to Australia in February 1879 along with his young family, who became a very successful aquatic entertainment troop, and world class swimmers in their own right.^[3] A number of newspapers verified Cavill’s achievement at the time, including The Graphic (1st Sept 1877, p. 213).

On September 6, 1911, after 15 unsuccessful tries, Thomas William Burgess became the second person to successfully make the crossing, with a total of 80 unsuccessful crossings made before Burgess duplicated Webb's feat, making the crossing from Dover to Gris Nez in 22 hours and 35 minutes. Burgess ate a hearty meal of ham and eggs before starting his swim and had only swum for 18 hours before he made the crossing, with his longest swim being six miles.^[4]

Henry Sullivan was successful in his seventh attempt. He entered the water in Dover at 4:20 on Sunday afternoon, August 5, 1923, and began his swim. Though the straight-line distance is 22.5 miles, choppy waters and capricious tides forced him to swim an estimated 56 miles. He reached shore at Calais at 8:05 in the evening of August 6, finishing in 27 hours and 45 minutes.^[5] Two other swimmers completed the swim that same summer. Enrique Tirabocchi, from Argentina, completed the swim on August 13, finishing in a record time of 16 hours and 33 minutes and becoming the first person to swim the route starting from the French side of the Channel.^[6] American Charles Toth of Boston completed the swim on September 9, 1923, in 16 hours and 40 minutes, missing by two days the expiration of a 1,000 Pound prize offered by the Daily Sketch for anyone who completed the swim, a prize that both Sullivan and Tirabocchi received from a representative of the Daily Sketch waiting on the shore with a check in hand.^[7]

Gertrude Ederle's successful cross-channel swim began at Cap Gris Nez in France at 07:05 on the morning of August 6, 1926. Her trainer was Burgess.^[8] 14 hours and 30 minutes later, coming ashore at Kingsdown, Kent, England, in a total time of 14 hours and 39 minutes, making her the first woman to complete the crossing and setting the record for the fastest time, breaking the previous mark set by Tirabocchi by almost two hours. A reporter from The New York Times who had accompanied Ederle's support team on a tugboat, recounted that Ederle was confronted by a British immigrations official, who recorded the biographical details of Ederle and the individuals on board the ship, none of whom had been carrying their passports. Ederle was finally allowed to come ashore, after promising that she would report to the authorities the following morning.^[9]

L. Walter Lissberger financed the $3,000 in expenses that Amelia Gade Corson and her husband incurred in preparing for the Channel swim. Lissberger made a wager with Lloyd's of London betting that she would succeed in crossing the Channel, and received a payout of $100,000 at odds of 20–1 when she completed her swim.^[10] She was one of three swimmers who were trying to make the swim across the Channel at the same time starting at 11:32 at night on August 28, 1926, leaving from Cape Gris Nez. The two men with her failed, Egyptian swimmer Ishak Helmy dropping out after three hours and an English swimmer failing one mile from Dover's Shakespeare Cliffs.^[11] With her husband rowing alongside in a dory and providing her with hot chocolate, sugar lumps and crackers, she completed the swim in a time of 15 hours and 29 minutes, one hour longer than the record set by Gertrude Ederle three weeks earlier that summer.^[12]

Jackie Cobell had intended to make the 21-mile crossing by a more direct route in July 2010, but inadvertently set the record for the slowest solo swim, when strong currents forced her to swim a total of 65 miles in 28 hours and 44 minutes, breaking the record set by Henry Sullivan in 1923, who had been the third person, and the first American, to make the crossing.^[13]

First swims

Direction	Swimmer	Year	Time	Notes
France to England	Frederick Cavill	1877	12:05	First crossing from France to England on 22 August 1877.
England to France	Thomas William Burgess	1911	22:35	Second crossing from England to France.[1][8]
England to France	Henry Sullivan	1923	26:50	Third crossing from England to France.[1]
France to England	Enrique Tirabocchi	1923	16:33	Second crossing from France to England.[1]
France to England	Charles Toth	1923	16:58	Third crossing from France to England.[1]
France to England	Gertrude Ederle	1926	14:39	First woman to cross in either direction.[1][14][15]
France to England	Amelia Gade Corson	1926	15:29	First mother to cross from England to France
France to England	Edward H. Temme	1934	15:34	First man to swim the English Channel in both directions. He swam from France to England in August 1927 and from England to France on August 18, 1934.[1][16]
France to England	Jenny Eileen James	1951	13:55	First Welsh woman to swim the English Channel.[17]
England to France to England	Florence Chadwick	1953	14:42	First woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.[1]
England to France	Damian Pizá Beltran	1953	15:23	First Mexican to swim the English Channel.
France to England	Marilyn Bell	1955	14:06	Second Canadian to swim the English Channel.[1][18]
France to England	Brojen Das	1958		First Asian (from Bikrampur, Bangladesh) to swim the English Channel, at the English Channel Swimming Competition in 1958.
	Mihir Sen	1958		First Indian to swim the English Channel.
	Arati Saha	1959	14:20	First Indian woman and first Asian woman to swim the English Channel.
England to France to England	Antonio Abertondo	1961	43:10	First person to swim the channel both ways non-stop.
England to France	Jon Erikson	1981	38:27	First person to swim the channel three ways.
England to France	John Maclean	1998	12:55	First paraplegic to swim the Channel.[19]
Folkestone to Cap Gris Nez	Philippe Croizon	2010	13:28	First quadruple amputee to swim the English Channel.
England to France	Killerwhales Channel Swim Team (The Extreme Sport Challenges Association)	2013	08:25	Fastest Relay Team crossing from England to France on 25 August 2013.

Records

Fastest

Record	Swimmer	Time	Date
Men	Trent Grimsey	6:55	2012
Men two ways	Philip Rush	16:10	1987
Men three ways	Philip Rush	28:21	1987
Women	Yvetta Hlaváčová	7:25	2006
Women two ways	Susie Maroney	17:14	1991
Women three ways	Alison Streeter	34:40	1990

Most crossings

Record	Swimmer	Crossings
Men	Kevin Murphy	34
Men two ways	Kevin Murphy, Stuart Johnson	3
Men three ways	Jon Erikson, Philip Rush	1
Women	Alison Streeter	43
Women two ways	Cynthia Nicholas	5
Women three ways	Alison Streeter	1

Youngest

• In 1988 Thomas Gregory (UK) was the youngest male (11 years and 11 months) to swim the English channel, in a time of 11 hours 54 minutes.
• Lynne Cox crossed in July 1972, at age fifteen, breaking both the men's and women's records.
• Marilyn Bell, on July 31, 1955, at age seventeen, was the first youngest female (14th woman, 32nd person, 2nd Canadian) to cross from France to England with her time of 14 hours 36 minutes.^[20][21]
• On Sept 3/4 2010 BEST (Bristol English Channel Swim Team) became the youngest relay team ever to swim the English Channel, in a time of 13 hours, 25 minutes and 30 seconds. The average age of the team, from Bristol, England and consisting only of boys, was 12 years 118 days. They were piloted by Mike Oram of the CS&PF (Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation).
• Six Girls No Buoys, on 1 September 2013, became the youngest relay team consisting only of girls (five 13-year-olds and one 14-year-old) to swim the Channel, in 13 hours, 6 minutes and 19 seconds.
• Millie Elson, in September 2013, at age thirteen, became the youngest deaf person to swim the channel as part of the London-based Six Girls No Buoys relay team.

Oldest

• Otto Thaning a South African who was aged 73 when he successfully crossed from Dover on September 6th 2014. He also holds the record for the fastest time for over 50 year olds across the Channel which he did in 1994 aged 53.
• Cyril Baldock, who was aged 70 years and 9 months when he crossed on 20 August 2014, taking 12 hours 45 minutes. Cyril is the 5th Australian to cross the channel.
• The oldest male swimmer to cross under the rules of the Channel Swimming Association is Australian Clifford Batt, who was aged 67 years and 240 days when he crossed on 19 August 1987, taking 18 hours 37 minutes.
• The oldest female swimmer is Susan Oldham of Australia, who was 64 years, 257 days old when she completed the 21-mile swim on August 24, 2010.^[22]

Other records

• 7 October 1927, Mercedes Gleitze became, on her eighth attempt, the first British woman to swim the channel. She swam from France to England in 15 hours 15 minutes. Because of a claim which was soon proven to be false, by Dr. Dorothy Cochrane Logan (using her professional name, Mona McLennan), to have swum the Channel on 11 October in the faster time of thirteen hours and ten minutes, Gleitze's own claim was cast into doubt. To silence the doubters, Gleitze decided to repeat her feat in what was called "the vindication swim". On 21 October she entered the water at Cap Gris Nez. But this time the water was much colder, and she did not complete the crossing. She was pulled semi-conscious from the water after 10 hours 24 minutes, some seven miles (11 km) short of the English shore. She might have been disappointed at not completing the swim, but after witnessing her strength, courage, and determination, nobody doubted the legitimacy of her previous swim, and she was hailed as a heroine. Rolex had asked her to wear one of their first Oyster waterproof watches during her repeat attempt, and her feat was subsequently used in advertising by Rolex.
• Hassan Abdel Rehim (Egypt) won the first Daily Mail cross channel race(men) - France to England August 22, 1950. The women's race was won by Eileen Fenton (Dewsbury, England).
• Mihir Sen became the first Indian to swim the English Channel, from Dover to Calais on September 27, 1958.^[23]
• Other swimming crossings include: Vicki Keith (first butterfly swim crossing); Montserrat Tresserras (first Spanish swimmer); Abhijit Rao, the youngest Asian (6 August 1988); comedians who have swum the channel include Doon Mackichan, and David Walliams.^[24]
• In 1997, at the age of 32, Mike Taylor became the first person with diagnosed multiple sclerosis to take part in a completed relay across the English Channel, swimming the first section without use of his legs.^[25][26]
• Lachlan (Lochie) Hinds completed the swim from England to France on July 5, 2012 and broke the record as the youngest Australian male to complete the swim at the age of 16.
• Charlotte Samuels completed the swim from England to France on September 8, 2014 at age 16. By completing the crossing, she became the youngest person to complete the Triple Crown of Swimming.

References

External links

• Full list of successful Channel swims and swimmer information