Long-distance swimming is distinguished from ordinary

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

in that the distances involved are longer than are typically swum in pool competitions. When a given swim calls more on endurance than on outright speed, it is the more likely to be considered a long-distance swim. Long-distance swims, however, may take place in pools, such as the 1st official 24 hours World Championship in 1976 won by Peppo Biscarini with a record of 83.7 km (24 hour swims in a 50 m-long pool) or the current 25 meter pool world record of 2008 Olympic gold medalist Maarten van der Weijden. Some of the better-known long-distance swims are crossings of the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

Catalina Channel Santa Catalina Island (; ) often shortened to Catalina Island or Catalina, is a rocky island, part of the Channel Islands (California), Channel Islands, off the coast of Southern California in the Gulf of Santa Catalina. The island covers an ...

Fehmarn Belt Fehmarn Belt () (, former spelling ''Femer Bælt''; ) is a strait connecting the Bay of Kiel and the Bay of Mecklenburg in the western part of the Baltic Sea between the German island of Fehmarn and the Danish island of Lolland. Ferries ...

and

Cook Strait Cook Strait () is a strait that separates the North Island, North and South Islands of New Zealand. The strait connects the Tasman Sea on the northwest with the South Pacific Ocean on the southeast. It is wide at its narrowest point,McLintock, ...

. Ultra-long-distance swimming is sometimes referred to as

marathon swimming Marathon swimming is a class of open water swimming defined by long distances, with being the unofficially held minimum distance. Routes are typically geographically based or buoy based. Geographical routes include crossings of channels an ...

. The minimum distance that constitutes a marathon swim has dramatically shortened over time. Different organizations adopt various minimum distances. The swimming marathon events at the Olympic games have a distance of 10 km. Long-distance swims tend to fall into one of two categories: (1) swims in which the start date and start time are chosen by the individual swimmer (often called solo-swims), and (2) swims that involve a group-start. Long-distance swimming is one of the events wherein there are women's records that beat men's records under equal conditions.

Organization regulations

Swim organizations, for the purposes of their record keeping, often impose other rules.

FINA World Aquatics, formerly known as FINA (; ), is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administering international competitions in List of water sports, water sports. It is one of several interna ...

and International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame do not keep records for swims that employ thermal insulating material, drag reduction fabrics, buoyancy aids, breathing apparatus, propulsion prosthetics, etc. For major channel crossings, most organizations do allow the swimmer to use outside help, an example being that the swimmer swims alongside a boat that uses sophisticated electronics and telecommunications to help the swimmer take the easiest path through surface currents and tides. Such boats can also make the challenge easier for the swimmer by blocking wind and surface chop. Such boats also carry food and hot beverages for the swimmer to consume periodically during the swim (e.g. every 20 to 30 minutes). In another variant, some swim organizations simply have different sets of records for different equipment scenarios (e.g. wetsuit and non-wetsuit divisions), similar to the structure of

free diving Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving, is a mode of underwater diving that relies on apnea, breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba set, scuba gear. Besides the ...

record keeping.

Long-distance swimming in the Netherlands

The

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

has a rich tradition in these races, which are known in Dutch as ''langebaanzwemmen'' (literally "long-lane swimming"). , some have been organised continually for over 50 years. Many Dutch competitors have also achieved prestige in the international arena, such as Herman Willemse, Judith de Nijs, Lenie de Nijs, Joke van Staveren, Monique Wildschut, Irene van der Laan, Hans van Goor, Edith van Dijk and Maarten van der Weijden (Olympic medalist). In the Netherlands, there are three categories of ''langebaanzwemmen'': * ''Prestatietochten'' (lit. "achievement-tour"): distances over 250 m for all categories (inclusive of participants without a racing permit). * ''Langeafstandzwemmen'' (lit. "long-distance swimming): distances up to 10 km. This category includes open water events. In this category there are the ''Open Nationale Kampioenschappen'' in 5 km and 10 km freestyle, with separate events for

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

s and

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

s, and * ''Marathonzwemmen'' (lit. "marathon swimming"): distances over 10 km. The Nationale Kampioenschappen (national championships) in this category is a joint venture with neighbouring

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. Most events are in the long-distance category, with around 25 in the Netherlands. An approximately equal number are organised in

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

in Belgium. The

waterway A waterway is any Navigability, navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is ...

s of the

Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

, therefore, are some of the busiest in open-water swimming in the world.

References

External links

Openwaterpedia

Marathon Swimming

World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation

World Open Water Swimming Federation

Open Water Swimming

Daily News of Open Water Swimming
{{DEFAULTSORT:Long-Distance Swimming Swimming Open water swimming

Organization regulations

Long-distance swimming in the Netherlands

See also

References

External links