From 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, Romanian swimmer Avram Iancu did a workout, a 12-hour swim down the Bega River in Timisoara, Romania. He explained, “It’s the toughest workout I’ve done in my life. For 8 hours, I swam upstream. It’s terrible, believe me, the water temperature was 17°C degrees. It was a really hard workout.”
There is a specific purpose to his workout. On July 17th in Hungary, Iancu plans to swim in Lake Balaton for 72 consecutive 72 hours, covering a distance of 150 km. He swam 36 hours 29 minutes straight in the Danube River last year and a 2,860 km stage swim in the same river in 2017, a year after swimming across the English Channel. He also swam 680 km along the coast of the Black Sea from Sulina to Istanbul, for 60 days.
To watch an interview with Iancu in Romanian, visit here.
To learn more about Iancu, watch videos below:
Iancu gave a TED Talk about his Faith in Dreams at TEDxBucharest in 2019:
The film poster above shows Avram Iancu in SW!M, a documentary film directed by Sabin Dorohoi.
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.
