The Oceans Seven is a marathon swimming challenge consisting of seven open water channel swims. It was devised in 2008 as the swimming equivalent of the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge. It comprises the North Channel, the Cook Strait, the Molokaʻi Channel, the English Channel, the Catalina Channel, the Tsugaru Strait and the Strait of Gibraltar.
The record for the fastest cumulative time for the completion of the 7 swims is held by Scot Andrew Donaldson, with a total swim time of 63 hours, 2 minutes.
The record for the fastest completion of all seven swims is held by Bulgarian Petar Stoychev who achieved it in 173 days, completing on 14 August 2024.
The record for the youngest ever person to complete all 7 swims is held by New Zealander Caitlin O'Reilly who was 20 years, 7 months, and 15 days old upon completion. List of Oceans Seven swims
The North Channel: between Northern Ireland and Scotland, The Cook Strait: between New Zealand’s North and South Islands, The Molokaʻi Channel (also known as the Kaiwi Channel): between Moloka’i and O’ahu, The English Channel: between England and France, The Catalina Channel: between Santa Catalina Island and Los Angeles, The Tsugaru Strait: between the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, The Strait of Gibraltar: between Spain and Morocco,
List of successful completions The LongSwims Database maintains a list of swimmers who have completed the challenge: NameDate completedNationNotes1Stephen RedmondIrelandFirst ever to complete all seven swims. Total time 2 years 344 days; cumulative time 104 hours 19 minutes. 2Anna-Carin NordinSwedenFirst woman to complete all seven swims. Total time 2 years 290 days; cumulative time 182 hours 39 mins. 3Michelle MacyUnited StatesFirst American to complete all seven swims. 4Darren MillerUnited States5Adam WalkerUnited Kingdom6Kimberley ChambersNew Zealand7Antonio ArgüellesMexico8Ion Lazarenco-TironRepublic of MoldovaFirst from a landlocked country9Rohan Dattatrey MoreIndiaFirst Asian10Abhejali BernardováCzech Republic11Cameron BellamySouth AfricaFirst South African12Lynton MortensenAustraliaFirst Australian13Thomas “Fleppy” PembrokeAustralia14Nora Toledano CadenaMexico15Mariel Hawley DávilaMexico16André WiersigGermany17Elizabeth FryUnited States18Attila MányokiHungaryFastest cumulative time (64 hours 35 minutes) until Donaldson, 2023 19Jonathan RatcliffeUnited Kingdom20Jorge CrivillésSpainFirst Spaniard21Adrian SarchetGuernseyFirst Channel Islander.22Prabhat KoliIndia 23Dina LevačićCroatia First Croat, youngest (27 years)24Herman van der WesthuizenSouth Africa25Andrew DonaldsonUnited Kingdom Fastest total time (355 days) until Stoychev, 2024; Fastest cumulative time (63 hours 2 minutes). Note: the previous record for total time was 2 years 60 days.26Stephen JunkAustralia27Kieron PalframanSouth Africa28Bárbara HernándezChileFirst South American.29Mark SowerbyAustralia30Zach MargolisUnited StatesFirst openly LGBTQ+ 31Paul GeorgescuRomâniaFirst Romanian32Petar StoychevBulgariaFirst Bulgarian. Fastest total time (173 days from 14 March to 2 September 2024: Stoychev repeated his English Channel swim after completing Oceans Seven to reduce total time)33Nathalie PohlGermanyFirst German woman.34Caitlin O'ReillyNew ZealandYoungest ever swimmer to complete the Oceans Seven at 20 years, 7 months, and 15 days.35Ryan Utsumi18 April 2025United States36Marcia Cleveland20 May 2025United States37Eduardo Collazos Valle20 June 2025Peru38Robert Woodhouse7 July 2027New Zealand39Alessandra Rossi Cima19 July 2025Brasil40Bengisu Avcı4 August 2025TürkiyeFirst Turkish swimmer. Cumulative time (73 hours 16 minutes)41Simon Olliver30 August 2025New Zealand42Joanne Norman2 March 2026Australia43Andreas Waschburger4 September 2025Germany44Paul Leonard19 June 2026United KingdomCookiecutter shark bite survivor (Molokai March 25)45Grainne Moss Gunn19 June 2026Ireland46Karen Ennis19 June 2026United Kingdom47Rob Lea29 June 2026United StatesFirst person to complete the Seven Summits and the Oceans Seven. 48Anshuman Jhingran30 June 2026India49Toni Enderli7 June 2026Switzerland
See also Long-distance swimming Open water swimming Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming
References
Sataline, Suzanne (2010); "Extreme Swimmers Accept the Challenge of 'Oceans Seven'"; Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 16, 2010.
External links