List of successful English Channel swimmers


This is a list of notable successful swims across the English Channel.

First attempts

After a seaman had floated across the Channel on a bundle of straw, Matthew Webb made the crossing without the aid of artificial buoyancy. His first attempt ended in failure, but on 25 August 1875, he started from Admiralty Pier in Dover and made the crossing in 21 hours and 45 minutes, despite challenging tides and a jellyfish sting.
80 failed attempts were made by a variety of people before Thomas William Burgess, who on 6 September 1911 became the second person to successfully make the crossing. He crossed from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in 22 hours and 35 minutes at his 16th bid. Burgess ate a hearty meal of ham and eggs before starting his swim and had only trained for 18 hours before he made the crossing, with his longest practice being.
Henry Sullivan was successful in his seventh attempt. He entered the water in Dover at 4:20 on Sunday afternoon, 5 August 1923. Though the straight-line distance is, choppy waters and capricious tides forced him to swim an estimated. He reached shore at Calais at 8:05 in the evening of 6 August, finishing in 27 hours and 45 minutes. Two other swimmers completed the swim that same summer. Enrique Tirabocchi, from Argentina, completed the swim on 13 August, finishing in a record time of 16 hours and 33 minutes and becoming the first person to swim the route starting from the French side of the Channel. American Charles Toth of Boston completed the swim on 9 September 1923, in 16 hours and 40 minutes, missing by two days the expiration of a £1,000 prize offered by the Daily Sketch for anyone who completed the swim, a prize that both Sullivan and Tirabocchi received from a representative of the Daily Sketch waiting on the shore with a cheque in hand.
Gertrude Ederle's successful cross-channel swim began at Gris Nez in France at 07:05 on the morning of 6 August 1926. Her trainer was Burgess. 14 hours and 30 minutes later, coming ashore at Kingsdown, Kent, England, in a total time of 14 hours and 39 minutes, making her the first woman to complete the crossing and setting the record for the fastest time, breaking the previous mark set by Tirabocchi by almost two hours. A reporter from The New York Times who had accompanied Ederle's support team on a tugboat, recounted that Ederle was confronted by a British immigrations official, who recorded the biographical details of Ederle and the individuals on board the ship, none of whom had been carrying their passports. Ederle was finally allowed to come ashore, after promising that she would report to the authorities the following morning.
L. Walter Lissberger financed the $3,000 in expenses that Amelia Gade Corson and her husband incurred in preparing for the Channel swim. Lissberger made a wager with Lloyd's of London betting that she would succeed in crossing the Channel, and received a payout of $100,000 at odds of 20-1 when she completed her swim. She was one of three swimmers who were trying to make the swim across the Channel at the same time starting at 11:32 at night on 28 August 1926, leaving from Cape Gris Nez. The two men with her failed, Egyptian swimmer Ishak Helmy dropping out after three hours and an English swimmer failing one mile from Dover's Shakespeare Cliffs. With her husband rowing alongside in a dory and providing her with hot chocolate, sugar lumps and crackers, she completed the swim in a time of 15 hours and 29 minutes, one hour longer than the record set by Gertrude Ederle three weeks earlier.
Jackie Cobell had intended to make the crossing by a more direct route in July 2010, but inadvertently set the record for the slowest solo swim, when strong currents forced her to swim a total of in 28 hours and 44 minutes, breaking the record set by Henry Sullivan in 1923, who had been the third person, and the first American, to make the crossing.

First swims

DirectionCountry of originSwimmerYearTimeNotes
England to FranceUnited KingdomMatthew Webb187521:45First crossing from England to France on 25 August 1875.
England to FranceUnited KingdomThomas William Burgess191122:35Second crossing from England to France.
England to FranceUnited StatesHenry Sullivan192326:50Third crossing from England to France; first American to swim across the English Channel.
France to EnglandItalyEnrique Tirabocchi192316:33First crossing from France to England.
France to EnglandUnited StatesCharles Toth192316:58Third crossing from France to England.
France to EnglandUnited StatesGertrude Ederle192614:39First woman to cross in either direction.
France to EnglandUnited StatesAmelia Gade Corson192615:29First mother to cross in either direction.
France to EnglandUnited KingdomMercedes Gleitze192715:15First British woman to cross the English Channel.
France to EnglandUnited KingdomHilda "Laddie" Sharp192814:5815th to cross and the 5th fastest.
France to EnglandSouth AfricaMargaret Duncan193016:17First woman from South Africa to swim the English Channel.
France to EnglandUnited KingdomEdward H. Temme193415:34First man to swim the English Channel in both directions. He swam from France to England in August 1927 and from England to France on 18 August 1934.
England to FranceUnited StatesFlorence Chadwick195314:42First woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.
France to EnglandWinnie Leuszler195113:25First Canadian to swim the English Channel.
England to FranceMexicoDamian Pizá Beltran195315:23First Mexican to swim the English Channel.
France to EnglandPortugal195412:00
France to EnglandEgyptAbdellatief Abouheif195511:44Winner of a special 1955 race from France to England, competed against another 11 male and four female contenders.
France to EnglandBangladeshBrojen Das1958First Asian to swim the English Channel, at the English Channel Swimming Competition in 1958. Das became a Bangladeshi citizen after the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.
England to FranceIndiaMihir Sen1958First Indian to swim the English Channel.
France to EnglandBrazilAbilio Couto195812:45First South American to swim the English Channel.
France to EnglandIndiaArati Saha195914:20First Indian woman and first Asian woman to swim the English Channel.
England to FranceBrazilAbilio Couto195912:49Former world record of the English Channel
France to EnglandBrazilAbilio Couto195911:33Best time of the year.
France to EnglandNiko Nestor195912:06First Macedonian to swim the English Channel.
England to France to EnglandArgentinaAntonio Abertondo196143:10First person to swim the channel both ways non-stop.
France to EnglandAtina Bojadži196913:20First Macedonian woman to swim the English Channel.
France to EnglandCzech RepublicFrantišek Venclovský197115:26First Czech to swim the channel.
England to FrancePolandTeresa Zarzeczańska197511:10First Polish woman to swim the English Channel.
England to FrancePolandRomuald Szopa197812:49First Polish man to swim the English Channel.
England to FranceUnited KingdomMary Yeats197911:19First Scottish woman to swim the English Channel.
England to FranceUnited StatesJames Counsilman197913:07Oldest person to cross the English Channel at the time.
England to FranceUnited StatesCharles Chapman198112:30First black swimmer to cross the Channel.
England to France to England to FranceUnited StatesJon Erikson198138:27First person to swim the channel three ways.
England to FranceUnited KingdomChris Little198617:23North Yorkshire Long Distance Club. Youngest person to swim one way until 1988.
England to FranceTunisiaNejib Belhedi199316:35First Tunisian to swim the channel, namesake of a trophy for swimming the channel at the highest tide.
England to FranceAustraliaJohn Maclean199812:55First paraplegic to swim the Channel.
England to FranceBarbadosChris Gibbs200311:30First person from a Caribbean country to swim the English Channel. Aged 58, and member of The Merrymen Calypso band.
England to FranceIndiaAshwin Krishnasamy200716:07Youngest successful swimmer to cross the English Channel for the year 2007.
England to FranceBulgariaPetar Stoychev20076:57First swimmer to cross the English Channel under 7 hours.
England to FranceUnited KingdomDaniel Lee200813:42First teenager and the youngest British citizen to swim the channel.
England to FranceFrancePhilippe Croizon201013:28First quadruple amputee to swim the English Channel.
England to FranceIceland:is:Sigrún_Þuríður_Geirsdóttir|Sigrún Þuríður Geirsdóttir201522:34First woman from Iceland to swim the English Channel.
England to FranceEcuadorSara Palacios201812:58First Ecuadorian citizen and South American Woman to swim the channel.
England to FranceUnited KingdomLeah Chowdhry2018
14:44First British Asian Woman to swim the Channel
England to FranceSyriaZeina Alsharkas201911:36First Syrian woman.
England to FranceChileBárbara Hernández201912:13First Chilean woman to swim the English Channel.
England to France to England to France to EnglandUnited StatesSarah Thomas201954:10First person to swim the channel four ways non-stop.

Records

Fastest

Most crossings

Oldest swimmer

Youngest swimmer

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