Open Water

An Inside Look at the Yangtze River Crossing Festival On July 16, 2025, the Chinese city of Wuhan made waves with the 50th Yangtze River Crossing festival, an exhilarating yet challenging 1800-meter swim across the Yangtze, the third largest river in the world. Seventy international elite athletes, ...

Trans Tahoe Relay 2025 Results & Recap: Top Teams, Rivalries, and What’s Next July 21, 2025 Race‑Day Overview At sunrise on July 19, more than 230 relay teams and solo swimmers dove into Lake Tahoe’s 64+ °F water at Sand Harbor, Nevada, to begin the 11‑mile crossing to Skylandia Beach, California. ...

World Championships: Florian Wellbrock Anchors German Open Water Relay to Gold, Completes Sweep With Fourth Gold For the last six years, Florian Wellbrock has posted masterful results in both the pool and open water, navigating between the two very different formats more effectively than perhaps any...

World Championships: Florian Wellbrock Caps Sweep of Open Water Events with Knockout Decision; Ichika Kajimoto Breaks Through Already the champion of the 5k and 10k open-water events, Germany's Florian Wellbrock completed a sweep of the individual disciplines at the World Championships on Saturday. ...

World Championships: Florian Wellbrock, Moesha Johnson Double Up with 5k Titles Make it World Championships doubles for Germany's Florian Wellbrock and Australia's Moesha Johnson, as the open-water stars captured gold medals in the 5k events on Friday in Singapore. The latest victories from Wellbroc...

Catherine Breed Dives in for Lake Tahoe Swim to Prepare for 'Swim California' in 2026 Former Cal All-American Catherine Breed, ultra‑endurance swimmer and founder of Sea Dreamers, has embarked on a swimming circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe beginning July 16, 2025, from Skylandia Beach. This 60-plus .....

World Championships: Women's 10k Open-Water Event Postponed Due to Poor Water-Quality Levels One day before open-water competition was set to begin at the World Championships in Singapore, World Aquatics and the Singapore 2025 Organizing Committee have announced that the women's 10k event has been p...

Hundreds of swimmers and volunteers are gearing up to dive in and make waves at the 7th annual Swim Across America – Motor City Mile open water swim on Friday, July 11, 2025, at the Belle Isle Beach House in Detroit. Participants can choose from .25-mile, .5-mile, 1-mile or 2-mile courses, and land ...

Beyond the Lane Lines: Finding Joy in Open Water Swimming Swimming doesn’t have to be a sport that ends after the club or college days. Thanks to its low-impact nature and wide-ranging health benefits, it's one of the few sports that can be enjoyed well into adulthood. It also provides an opportunit...

Former Team USA swimmer and NCAA champion Catherine Breed has announced a plan to "Swim California" in 2026. The swim will be the first known attempt to swim the full length of the California coast from Oregon to Mexico. Previously Breed has swam the English Channel, Lake Tahoe and Monterey Bay. ...

Lewis Pugh Completes Martha’s Vineyard ‘Shark Swim’ Circumnavigation British swimmer Lewis Pugh on Monday competed the first of its kind “Shark Swim” around Martha’s Vineyard. The swim, timed to the 50th anniversary of the release of the blockbuster Jaws, was planned to raise awareness of shark cons...

Germany's Oliver Klemet, Lea Boy Claim Open Water Cup 3K Sprint Knockout Titles Stop 2 of the World Aquatics Open Water Cup concluded from Ibiza, Spain, with the 3K knockout sprints. Germany's Oliver Klemet earned the gold medal with a finals time of 4:50.50. Hungary's David Bethlehem took the silve...

Claire Weinstein, Ivan Puskovitch Secure 5K Titles at U.S. Open Water Nationals There's a good chance that Claire Weinstein will represent the United States in the pool at this summer's World Championships in Singapore. After all, Weinstein has established herself as a regular on the Team USA roster...

Canada Nominates Emma Finlin, Eric Brown for World Championship Canada’s Emma Finlin and Eric Brown are in line for spots at the World Championships this summer in open water swimming after their finishes at the U.S. Open Water Championships on Friday. Finlin finished ninth in the women’s race in Sa...

Open Water Nationals: Brinkleigh Hansen, Claire Weinstein Go 1-2 for Worlds Spots Brinkleigh Hansen made a late surge to cross the finish line first in the women's 10K at the USA Swimming Open Water National Championships. She was not in the top three heading into the final lap but the 15-year-old f...

Katie Pumphrey to Replicate Bay to Baltimore Swim Katie Pumphrey is aiming to replicate her 24-mile Bay to Baltimore Swim, which she launched last year. Pumphrey announced on social media Thursday this year’s window, which will fall from May 18-23. She’ll swim from Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Harborpla...

Maya Merhige, 17, Adds Crossing of New Zealand’s Cook Strait American teenager Maya Merhige this weekend completed a crossing of the Cook Strait in New Zealand, the latest in the 17-year-old myriad open water feats. Merhige made the crossing in 14 hours, 8 minutes, 36 seconds on Friday, swimming 22 ...

Neil Agius, Sharon van Rouwendaal Honored at WOWSA Awards The World Open Water Swimming Association unveiled the 2024 WOWSA Awards this week, honoring the best in open-water swimming across six categories. Malta’s Neil Agius earned runner-up for Man of the Year and won the Performance of the Year Aw...

World Aquatics Launches Open Water Swimming World Rankings World Aquatics has launched, for the first time ever, its Open Water Swimming World Ranking system, creating new and exciting opportunities for athletes and National Federations, it announced on Wednesday. The World Aquatics Open Water Swimm...

New Zealand Marathon Swimmer Breanna Ward Achieves Triple CrownAnd Doing It For Shark Survival Inspirational New Zealand marathon swimmer and passionate ocean conservationist Breanna Ward has joined a select band of swimmers to complete the country’s triple crown of marathon crossings – her final s....