Martin Strel Breaks Records with 3,004 km Danube Swim Across 10 Countries

Martin Strel, the highly skilled Slovenian swimmer who last year broke the record for the longest crossing of Lake Garda, from Riva to Desenzano, has returned to visit his friends in Riva. The meeting took place a few days ago at the yacht club, where he spent a long time with Mimmo Bombana, the yacht club executive who provided technical support for the endeavor, and with Giancarlo Angelini, who had assisted him in executing it and then accompanied him during the final part of the journey. During the visit, Strel shared details of his latest spectacular swimming feat. He completed it in less than two months, from June 25 to August 20, swimming down the Danube for a total of 3,004 kilometers, thus once again earning his name in the “Guinness World Records” with the Millennium Swim, which also sets a length record. Starting from Tuttlingen, he swam an average of 30 to 50 kilometers per day, with a notable stage of 70 kilometers that took him from Vukovar in Croatia on July 25 and concluding with an 80-kilometer swim that led him ashore on the Romanian beach of Sulina on the Black Sea. He crossed ten countries in total: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania. Along the way, he traversed some of the most scenic, navigable parts — including areas where the war in Serbia had destroyed bridges — swimming through history, landscapes, and very delicate situations along the great river, completing the crossing in just 56 days and finishing four days ahead of schedule. At each crossing, he was greeted by delegations of athletes and authorities waving from bridges and riversides. In Romania, he was even accompanied for 5 kilometers by one of the candidates in the upcoming presidential elections, who, through this swimming spectacle widely covered by the media, also achieved a notable promotional scoop for his campaign. The most challenging stretch, he said, was the first half of the Danube, where water temperatures remained around 10 degrees Celsius, while in Belgrade he found it at around 21 degrees, and upon reaching the Black Sea for the final 144 kilometers, the water even reached 25-26 degrees. Swimming by day and resting at night on land or on support boats, Martin overcame immense fatigue, indulging in generous feasts of spaghetti with tomato sauce accompanied by good Italian wine. He is now working on organizing two other journeys: crossing the Red Sea from Sharm el Sheik to Urgada — a relatively short stretch for him but infested with sharks — and descending the Mississippi, which involves swimming over 4,000 kilometers (including the last section alongside alligators inhabiting the marshes around New Orleans!). He hopes to complete the latter next year, contingent on securing sponsors. It’s an undertaking that could make anyone’s pulse race; for more information, visit: www.danube2000.com.