Breaking News From The Bering Strait
Jack Bright reports from above the Arctic Circle, “For the last two weeks I have been in Petropavlovsk Kamchatski in Russia. I am participating in what will be a historic swim across the Bering Strait from Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka, Russia, to Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska USA (via Big and Little Diomede Islands). The water temperature is estimated to be between 4-8°C. There will be 19 swimmers from China, Russia and the USA. Each swimmer will swim for 15 minutes at a time. The distance of the crossing is 86K and our estimated crossing time is 30 hours.
Each swimmer could swim up to 6 times. All the swimmers are experienced cold water swimmers.
Everyone has been checked by doctors. It should be some swim and there have been other swimming expeditions in the area before, most notably was Lynne Cox’s great swim form Little Diomede to Big Diomede in 1987. However, crossing the whole Bering Strait from Russia to the USA has never been done so it will be a world first.
This expedition took a lot of planning by the Russian organizers. It was only today after two weeks of waiting in Petropavlovsk Kamchatski that we got the go ahead. We should start the swim on or around the 10th of August.”
The official website is here; Openwaterpedia entry is here.
Copyright © 2011 by Open Water Source
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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