2025 will forever go down in SwimTrek history as the year we Swam The World!
We're still reeling from the excitement of what you did this past November! As many of you know, our annual SwimTrek60k virtual swim challenge evolved this year and we set ourselves the epic challenge of swimming 40,075 kilometres around the globe, uniting teams and solo swimmers from different countries, for a worldwide undertaking never attempted by any group of swimmers before.
In the end, 1425 swimmers signed up across 379 teams before our start on November 1st. You all committed to swimming your local pools, lakes and coastal waters, putting in extra kilometres to nudge us further each week, towards our finish line - where we started on the western Pacific coast of Ecuador.
We knew the event would be exciting, but we had no idea whether we could possibly complete this swim around the world in just 30 days. Here's how the timeline unfolded:
- After Week One (10 days), we had set off from Ecuador and swum 7,925 kilometres (1/5th of our target). We were way out in the middle of the Atlantic. We crossed mainland South America (3,500 kilometres), left from Port of Santarém (Brazil) and swam 4,425 kilometres out into the ocean depths! Our next landfall was Equatorial Guinea and we had 32,150 kilometres left to circle the world
- By the end of Week Two we were near the Maldives, having swum 16,939 kilometres (42% of the way there!), crossed the Atlantic, African continent and entered the central Indian Ocean, southwest of the Maldives! We had 23,136 kilometres left to circle the world and our next landfall was West Sumatra in the Indonesian archipelago
- Week Three ended and we found ourselves taking a breather between the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. All that denied us our finish line was a 12,921-kilometre sprint across the South Pacific Ocean. At that stage we had swum 27,154 kilometres and were 67% of the way there! We had just crossed the Australasian realm into the Oceanian realm, reaching open ocean northwest of tropical Vanuatu, with 12,921 kilometres left to circle the world. Our next landfall was our finish line on Ecuador's Pacific coast
- Going into our Final Week we still had to reach Ecuador across the South Pacific Ocean. Before our last few days, we were floating somewhere near the Galapagos Islands...
How The Event Ended
After 30 days, we made it! A massive final push from friends on the Pacific Coast of the United States and western Canada drove us back to and over our finish line. It wasn’t enough to swim by the Galápagos Islands and crawl to where we started on the Equator in Ecuador. You actually went on another 1441 kilometres for your second lap, riding the Amazon River into forested Brazil. In total, you swam 41,516 kilometres (103% of the world’s circumference!) and it took you just 30 days to circle the entire globe! Can you believe that?
What Impact Did You Have?
You all showed up for this event on a scale we could've never imagined. From all your separate countries, you set out boldly, tallied up your distances and collectively swam the world's circumference (for the first time in history). To say thanks for contributing to this amazing achievement, we've donated a total of $10,000 (US) to Seatrees to celebrate your efforts this past November. That's double the amount from 2024, and all thanks to you and your incredible swimming during November.
The money you’ve helped raise will lead to the following tangible contributions to our marine environments:
- Planting 1000 square feet of seagrass and macroalgae in Mallorca, Spain
- Planting 300 coral fragments (the equivalent of 3 entire coral reefs) in Viti Levu, Fiji
- Planting 100 coral fragments (the equivalent of an entire coral reef) in Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica
That’s 4 new reefs and a 1000-square-foot meadow of seagrass!
Together we've helped protect local ecosystems and marine life in waters we also swim. All of it thanks to those extra swims and kilometres you put in. We have now reached out to the team and solo swimmer that covered the longest distances, as well as the team we think took the best photo during the event. Prizes will be sent out soon. You can also see the final, official leaderboard below.
The Final Leaderboard
