Avram Iancu is a WOWSA Award Winner: 2021 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year

Steven Munatones 02/04/2022 open water swimming No Comment

Avram Iancu of Romania joins Paul Georgescu of Romania (World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year), Kate Steels of Great Britain (World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year), Maratona del Golfo Capri-Napoli of Italy (World Open Water Swimming Event of the Year), and Aloo of Mexico (World Open Water Swimming Product or Service of the Year), as the 2021 WOWSA Awards winners.

As with every edition of the WOWSA Awards, the Performance of the Year nominations are each and every incredibly remarkable. Avram has swam long distances in his stage swims before, but he swam 26.35 km upstream in the Danube River in Romania, starting from the Iron Gate Dam and finishing in 18 hours 30 minutes to win the World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year Award.

The winners and nominees of the 2021 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year Award included:

Winner: Avram Iancu (Romania)
First Runner-up: José Eduardo do Amaral Ferreira (Brazil)
Second Runner-up: Jordan Leckey (Ireland)
4. Krzysztof Gajewski (Poland)
5. Meliah Motchman (Canada)
6. Courtney Moates Paulk (USA)
7. Rusya – Türkiye Uluslararasi Karadeniz 320 km Açik Deniz Yüzme Maratonu (Russia – Turkey)
8. Jennifer Dutton (USA)
9. John Batchelder (USA)
10. Serge Gellé and Andrianarison Jimmy Laitsara (Madagascar)
11. Qing Li (USA)
12. Défi Titicaca (France)
13. Anna Brown (Andorra)
14. Oceane Cassignol (France)
15. Matan Roditi (Israel)

The past winners of the World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year Award include the following individuals and events:

2009: Andrew Smilley of the Cayman Islands for his performance at the RCP Tiburon Mile in San Francisco
2010: Ventura Deep Six of U.S.A. for its 325 km relay in 101 hours 39.53 minutes along the California coast by Jim McConica, Tom Ball, Kurtis Baron, Jim Neitz, Mike Shaffer and John Chung, a logistical extravaganza and open water swimming operational milestone
2011: Nejib Belhedi of Tunisia for his coastal 1400K Swim Across Tunisia
2012: Juan Ignacio Martínez Fernández-Villamil of Spain for organizing the Descenso a Nado de la Ría de Navia for decades
2013: Bering Strait Swim, a 6-day relay across the Bering Strait by 121 participants (swimmers + officials + crew)
2014: Diomede Islands Swim, a 5.6 km tandem swim by Alexandr Brylin and Grigorii Prokopchuk of Russia between the USA and Russia
2015: Strait of Messina record-breaking crossing by Andrea Fazio of Italy
2016: Sarah Thomas of USA for her 128.7 km crossing of Lake Powell in 56 hours 5 minutes 26 seconds
2017: Margarita Llorens Bagur of Spain for her 37 hour 73 km attempt between Ibiza and Javea in Islas Baleares
2018: Ross Edgley of the UK for his 157-day, 209-stage swim called the Great British Swim between June 1st and November 4th 2018 around Great Britain
2019: Roman Karkachev, Timur Falomkin, Andrey Zamyslov, and Anton Kutuev in the 25 km Gulf of Finland Relay across the Gulf of Finland from Yelagin Island in St. Petersburg to Kotlin Island in 9 hours 52 minutes 40 seconds in 7°C-9.6°C water.
2020: Original Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming by Kamil Resa Alsaran of Turkey.
2021: Avram Iancu of Romania who swam 26.35 km upstream in the Danube River in Romania, starting from the Iron Gate Dam and finishing in 18 hours 30 minutes.

The video of the 2021 WOWSA Awards above where Avram gives his acceptance speech, along with the other WOWSA Awards winners, features “Heroes and Dreamers”, a song by Pinkzebra. Its lyrics are poignant to the achievements of the winners, nominees and many open water swimmers around the world:

We control our fate
Destiny awaits
We are all the actors in the stories we create
Hope will be our guide
We’ll no longer hide
When we roar like thunder
Feel the wonder from inside
We are heroes and dreamers
We are restless believers
Stronger than ever
Never say never
Don’t look back now
Don’t look back now

Rise up
Stand with each other
We are sisters and brothers
Finding our place and
Running the race

We’ll take our chance and seize the moment
Hold on tight
And don’t let go and
All your hopes and dreams that light the way

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Steven Munatones

Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.

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