Many call him Big River Man, Daredevil, Human Fish, The hero in a speedo or The craziest man in the world – however you’d like to call him, he is the greatest ultra marathon swimmer in the world!
Breaking the Guinness World Record so many times and at the age of 50+ clearly wasn’t easy, but the man succeeded because he practiced what he preached. “Achieving the Impossible” – indeed, there are none for this modern hero. Martin´s swimming motto is: ´Swimming for peace, friendship and clean waters.´
Let´s list Martin´s record breaking swims all in a row down below:
2000: The Danube river (10 European countries) from source to sea, 3004 kms in 58 days;
2001: The Danube river, Non Stop swim, 504,5 kms in 84 hrs and 10 min;
2002: The Mississippi river (USA) from sourse to sea, 3797 kms in 68 days;
2004: The Yangtze river (China) from Yunnan to Shanghai, 4003 kms in 51 days;
2007: The Amazon river (Peru, Brasil) from Atalaya (Peru) to Belém (Brasil), 5268 km in 66 days.
And what big swimming adventures are actually left?
There are still plenty of rivers, oceans and lakes, but Strel thinks he is done with the big ones. However, he still wants to pursue some new challenge, but who knows what he will be swimming next? It takes big decision to make a splash in any of these mighty rivers not knowing what to expect. Even if Strel does not make any more swimming challenges, he will remain as one of the greatest living adventurer on the planet and his swimming feats will high likely remain untouched for many decades.
We are very proud to have such an inspiring person in our team, standing behind our swimming adventure business and sharing his passion for open water swimming, clean water, peace and friendship.
Martin does attend some of our swimming tours, so please follow our website or sign up into newsletter and we will inform you when and where he will be joining you. His son Borut Strel runs Strel Swimming organization and he will make sure you will have the best swimming experience with us.