Thomas Gregory (born 9th October 1976) swam 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 ...

in 1988 at the age of 11 years and 333 days. he still holds the record as the youngest person to have done so. No one will take the record from him because the Channel Swimming Association has since set an age limit of 16 years for officially recognised crossings. The age limit was introduced in November 2000. Gregory's coming-of-age story about being the youngest person to swim the Channel, ''A Boy in the Water'' (2018, Penguin: ) was joint winner of the 2018

William Hill Sports Book of the Year The William Hill Sports Book of the Year is an annual British sports writing award sponsored by bookmaker William Hill. It was first presented in 1989, and was conceived by Graham Sharpe of William Hill, and John Gaustad, founder of the Sport ...

. It was BBC Radio 4's ''

Book of the Week ''Book of the Week'' is a long-running BBC Radio 4 series, first broadcast in 1998. It features daily readings from an abridged version of a selected book read over five or occasionally ten weekday episodes. Each episode is approximately 15 min ...

'' in August 2018. He served in the

Royal Anglian Regiment The Royal Anglian Regiment is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It consists of two Regular battalions and one Army Reserve (United Kingdom), Reserve battalion. The modern regiment was formed in 1964, making it the oldest of the line regi ...

of the British Army.

References

1976 births Living people People from Eltham Swimmers from the Royal Borough of Greenwich English male swimmers English Channel swimmers World record holders in swimming Royal Anglian Regiment soldiers Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Greenwich Youth record holders {{UK-swimming-bio-stub