Alexander Studzinski of Germany (representing Europe), Daniel Katzir of Israel (representing Asia), Trent Grimsey (shown on left representing Oceania), Ivan Lopez of Mexico (representing the Americas) and Chad Ho of South Africa (representing Africa) will comprise of the Five Continent Team who will compete head-to-head against five top Brazilian swimmers in the new 10K King of the Sea Challenge.

The King of the Sea Challenge will be held on the 2016 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim course in Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It will be quite a battle between the foreigners and the local Brazilians, televised on TV GLOBO and broadcast on the popular Esporte Espetacular program on Sunday, December 13th. After each 2K loop, the athletes will run up onto the sand in front of the TV cameras and then dive back into the beach in an open water criterium race.

With the water expected to be 23°C (73°F) and flat under summer conditions (38°C or 100°F), it should be a great race especially with the beach start and finish experience of the Brazilians and Trent and Chad, all of whom have done lots of on-the-shore beach finish experience in their home countries.

In another exciting twist, the ten athletes will race a 400-meter ocean swim the day before the race. The winner of pre-race race will receive a head start on race day over the remaining nine swimmers with everyone starting in order of their finish.

So the second-place finisher will start a few seconds behind the winner; the third-place finisher will start a few seconds behind him, etc. These small differences on the 10K may be the winner needs to capture the top (cash) prize.

And with the expectations high for the 2016 Rio Olympics, the organizers are also offering an opportunity for amateur swimmers to do a 2K swim on the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim course the day before. Already over 1,500 swimmers have signed up.

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