NEWS

Ben Hooper reaches milestone in training for Atlantic crossing

This weekend, Ben Hooper, who’s training to swim across the Atlantic, reached the 100,000-length milestone. And it’s taken just a year. It’s a wonder he’s still counting!
To give it some perspective, 100,000 lengths of the 25m pool is equivalent to 1,566 miles: the same distance as swimming from London to Madrid and back. It means he’s had to swim more than 50km each week.
Ben has been training for up to six hours per day at indoor and outdoor venues around the UK, the US and the Mediterranean. However, the 100,000th length was clocked up in his local pool at Leisure At, Cheltenham.
Starting in November this year, Ben plans to become the first person to swim “every single mile” of the entire width of the Atlantic Ocean – 2,000 miles between Africa and Brazil.

The ‘Swim The Big Blue’ challenge, which will raise money for a number of good causes, has been described as one of the “greatest unconquered feats of human endurance” by patron Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

For an interview with Ben from last year, please see: http://www.h2openmagazine.com/features/africa-south-america-ben-hooper-plans-do-first-complete-cross-atlantic-swim/
Ben will be a guest speaker at this year’s Open Water Swimming Show on 12 July.

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I created Outdoor Swimmer in 2011 (initially as H2Open Magazine) as an outlet for my passion for swimming outdoors. I've been a swimmer and outdoor swimmer for as long as I remember. Swimming has made a huge difference to my life and I want to share its joys and benefits with as many people as possible. I am also the author of Swim Wild & Free: A Practical Guide to Swimming Outdoors 365 a Year and I provide one-to-one support to swimmers through Swim Mentoring.