International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame has inducted a number of Honor Pilots during the 21st century including:

• Reg Brickell, Sr., Great Britain, Class of 2003 (English Channel)
• Captain Leonard Hutchinson, Great Britain, Class of 2004 (English Channel)
• Right Honourable Captain William J. Long OBE, Great Britain, Class of 2004 (English Channel)
• Michael Oram, Great Britain, Class of 2004 (English Channel)
• Duncan Taylor, Great Britain, Class of 2005 (English Channel)
• David Whyte, Great Britain, Class of 2007 (English Channel)
• Reg Brickell, Jr., Great Britain, Class of 2009 (English Channel)
• Ray Brickell, Great Britain, Class of 2009 (English Channel)
• Charlie Gravett, Great Britain, Class of 2016 (Isle of Jersey)
• John Pittman, USA, Class of 2017 (Catalina Channel)
• Mickey Pittman, USA, Class of 2017 (Catalina Channel)

David Whyte talked about his many memorable crossings of the English Channel during a WOWSA Live interview with International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame chairperson Ned Denison:

• he remembers the crossing by Victor Malwa of Zambia in 13 hours in 2005
• he remembers the nearly unbelievable crossing by Walid Ahmed Abdel Kader in 12 hours 59 minutes. Walid is a disabled Egyptian swimmer who swam across with only one arm and one leg.
• he piloted the first six-way relay crossing in 61 hours 27 minutes
• he piloted Richard Blatny in a 23 hour 38 minute breaststroke crossing
• he piloted France-to-England record setter Eric Johnson (8 hours 20 minutes)
• he piloted Michael Read MBE on his 32nd crossing and Kevin Murphy on several of his crossings

Whyte was inducted in 2007 after 25 years of piloting 305 English Channel swimmers from 32 different countries doing 83 solo crossings between 1984 and 2008 and multiple disabled swimmers, paraplegic swimmers, and multi-amputees, on both solo and relay swims across the English Channel.

Whyte is shown above with David Yudovin.

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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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