Courtesy of Cristian Vergara, PatagoniaSwim.com, Chile.

Cristian Vergara and Julieta Núñez Gundlach of PatagoniaSwim have compiled a list of swimmers who have completed unassisted crossings of the Strait of Magellan.

Vergara describes the course, “Point to point at the narrowest part of the Strait of Megellan is 4 km in distance, but because of currents and place where the swim takes place, the actual distance is over 5 km.”

Strait of Magellan Swimmers:
1. Lynne Cox (USA, age 19) in 1 hour 2 minutes in 5.6°C water on December 29th 1976
2. Victor “Tiburon” Contreras (Chile, age 32) in 1 hour 28 minutes 6 seconds on February 18th 1979
3. Victor Contreras Fajardo (Chile, age 14) in 2 hours 11 minutes 46 seconds on January 22nd 1998
4. Elias Rabi (Chile, age 19) in 1 hour 36 minutes 53 seconds on January 4th 2000
5. Mario Allende Gomez (Chile, age 23) in 1 hour 41 minutes 55 seconds on January 4th 2000
6. Luis Leighton Farias (Chile, age 13) in 1 hour 26 minutes 42 seconds on January 5th 2001
7. Francisco Javier Herrera Fernandez (Chile, age 16) in 1 hour 38 minutes 51 seconds on January 5th 2001
8. Dionicio Marchant (Chile, age 18) in 1 hour 13 minutes 31 seconds on February 18th 2002
9. Gustavo Oriozabala (Argentina, age 32) in 51 minutes 11 seconds on January 9th 2003 – overall record
10. Tito Aguila (Chile, age 34) in 1 hour 33 minutes 16 seconds on March 6th 2003
11. Jorge Rikarday Flores (Mexico, age 53) in 1 hour 57 minutes 37 seconds on March 22nd 2004
12. Scott Lautman (USA, age 55) in 1 hour 18 minutes on January 21st 2009
13. Raul Cristian Vergara (Chile, age 50) in 1 hour 50 minutes on January 21st 2009
14. Rachel Golub (USA, age 32) in 1 hour 53 minutes on January 21st 2009
15. Rafał Ziobro (Poland, age 31) in 1 hour 19 minutes on February 9th 2001
16. Ryan Stramrood (South Africa, age 38) in 1 hour 3 minutes on January 14th 2001
17. Kieron Palframan (South Africa, age 37) in 1 hour 3 minutes on January 14th 2001
18. Andrew Chin (South Africa, age 43) in 1 hour 13 minutes on January 14th 2001
19. Ram Barkai (South Africa, age 53) in 1 hour 20 minutes on January 14th 2001
20. Toks Viviers (South Africa, age 47) in 1 hour 20 minutes on January 14th 2001
21. Randy Perkins (USA, age 46) in 1 hour 43 minutes 42 seconds on January 20th 2013
22. Hunter Wright (USA, age 17) in 1 hour 52 minutes on January 17th 2014
23. Jaimie Monahan (USA, age 37) in 1 hour 10 minutes on April 6th 2017
24. Devon Clifford (USA, age 27) in 1 hour 40 minutes on April 6th 2017
25. Rainie Pearce (USA, age 56) in 1 hour 50 minutes on April 6th 2017
26. Michelle Macy (USA, age 40) in 58 minutes 13 seconds on November 29th 2017 – female record
27. Madhu Nagaraja (Canada, age 46) in 1 hour 19 minutes 58 seconds on November 29th 2017
28. Stephen Junk (Australia, age 57) in 1 hour 3 minutes 44 seconds on April 10th 2018 – shown above with his escort team

For more information on Patagonia Swim and the Strait of Magellan, visit here.

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