James Jonsson is an American open water swimmer from Utah who holds two marathon swimming records for the fastest crossing of Bear Lake, a 19-mile swim on the border of the states of Utah and Idaho. He set the record of 8 hours 53 minutes in 2010.

Last year, Jonsson became the first person to swim the length of Utah Lake, 20.42 miles in the south to north direction in 10 hours 1 minute. He started from the southern shore at Goshen Bay and finished at the north shore at the American Fork Harbor.

Utah Lake is the largest freshwater lake in the state and the third largest west of the Mississippi. The width has been swum by two people, but no one had done the length before Jonsson took up the challenge. “The lake has two distinct personalities. The southern half is very rural and surrounded by apple orchards to the east and desert scrub to the west. The northern half is more urban and surrounded by the cities of Provo, Orem, American Fork, and Lehi.”

Smooth.

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