Adrian Alejandro Wittwer (born 1986) is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

extreme athlete Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are physical activity, activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk of injury or death. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly speci ...

and ice swimmer.

Life

Wittwer lives in Bolligen in the

Canton of Bern The canton of Bern, or Berne (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. The bear is the heraldic symbol of the c ...

. As an extreme athlete he participated in

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...

and

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

s as well as extreme swimming. In 2012, Wittwer successfully transversally crossed Lake Constace. In 2013, he tried to cross the longitude of the lake from Bodman-Ludwigshafen to

Bregenz Bregenz (; ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost states of Austria, state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the wes ...

, a distance no one ever completed. He had to abort after 27 of the 64 kilometres because of weather conditions. Through other extreme swimmers Wittwer got into ice swimming and qualified for the Ice Swimming World Championship in 2017. He participated in the WC in 2018 in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

and won 6th place in the 200m

breaststroke Breaststroke is a human swimming, swimming style in which the swimmer is on their chest and the torso does not rotate. It is the most popular recreational style due to the swimmer's head being out of the water a large portion of the time, and ...

competition. In the German Opens in 2018 he qualified for the WC in 2019. In February 2019, Wittwer completed the Ice Mile Challenge, which means swimming a mile in water below 5 °C with only goggles, a swimming cap and swim trunks, in 3 °C cold water in 41 minutes and 46 seconds. He is the first Swiss man to complete this challenge. In March 2019 Wittwer won 2nd place in the WC for 50m breaststroke. Wittwer works for the Swiss Military at the department for defence, public safety and sports. In 2017, Wittwer was part of a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

mission to

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

for 6 months, as part of a peace supporting operation of Swisscoy, He is active for the

Green Liberal Party of Switzerland The Green Liberal Party of Switzerland (, GLP; , PVL; , PVL; , PVL), is a green-liberal political party in Switzerland. Founded in 2007, the party holds eleven seats in the Federal Assembly as of the October 2023 election. The party was formed ...

and is part of the volunteer fire department.

References

1986 births Athletes from the canton of Bern Living people Swiss male breaststroke swimmers 21st-century Swiss sportsmen {{Switzerland-swimming-bio-stub