British ultramarathon swimmer plans 1,000-mile swim around Iceland
Ross Edgley will kick off his attempt to circumnavigate the Nordic island in May
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British ultramarathon swimmer Ross Edgley has completed some unbelievable challenges, from swimming around the entirety of Great Britain to completing a “treeathlon” and more. Now, he has plans to swim around the country of Iceland. This will be the first time anyone has attempted this feat, and it will be about a 1,000-mile journey if Edgley is successful. He plans to set off around the island starting on May 16.
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Edgley has accomplished a lot in the realm of ultramarathon swimming. In 2018, he became the first person to swim around Great Britain, completing the more than 3,200-kilometre journey in 157 days. In 2024, he set the world record for the longest continuous river swim, travelling an unbelievable 510 kilometres in 62 hours with no breaks. This result was amazing enough, but the location Edgley chose for the swim added to the accomplishment, as he completed it in the frigid and rough waters of Canada’s Yukon River.
In 2016, he swam 1,500 metres, biked 40 kilometres, and ran 10 kilometres with a 100-pound tree in tow. He pulled the tree behind him during the swim, strapped it to his back for a very awkward and difficult bike ride, and kept it on for the run. Edgley is no stranger to arduous, mind-boggling endurance challenges, and although his swim around Great British was close to 2,000 kilometres longer than his upcoming route, the Iceland swim will be a test like nothing he has faced before.
“Unlike the Great British Swim, Iceland will see me battling 100-foot waves, 100 mile per hour winds, sub-zero seas, and storms of snow, sand, and volcanic ash,” Edgley wrote on Instagram. “No one’s ever tried this before (probably for good reason).”
The challenge kicks off in May, and Edgley’s team will release weekly videos with detailed updates of his progress, struggles, and successes along the way.