ICE Hall of Fame - Honoree
BERING STRAIT RELAY(11)
Event/Adventure Honoree
The 2013 International Relay Swim Across the Bering Strait was a six‐day relay swim across the Bering Strait from Cape Dezhnev in Chukotka, Russia, to Cape Prince of Wales in the state of Alaska, USA (via Big Diomede and Little Diomede Islands).
Water temperatures were in the2‐8 C range.
Tremendous effort by the organizing committee to get all the government permissions to agree with safety, secure boats & crew and assemble swimmers.
The event was very significant on many fronts:
It was a very high‐profile event with massive media, social media, film and swimming community attention. It highlighted the danger and provided an excellent example of the investment in safety (55 staff on the water) required in the sport.
The relay was selected as the 2013 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year.
Finally, this was one of the key unifying events in developing ice swimming globally.
The 44 swimmers from 15 regions of the Russian Federation represented their leaders and most active participants. The other 22 swimmers from 15 countries (South Africa, Australia, Italy, Chile, Argentina, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, Latvia, Ukraine, China, the UK and the USA) have been and continue to be leaders of Ice Swimming across the rest of the world.
BERING STRAIT RELAY Links
