Pole becomes first person to swim 160km Baltic Sea route between Sweden and Poland
Bartłomiej Kubkowski managed the crossing at his fifth attempt, raising hundreds of thousands for charity.
Polish swimmer Bartłomiej Kubkowski made history on Sunday evening by becoming the first individual to successfully swim the 160km Baltic Sea route between Sweden and Poland. The journey, which he completed over 56 hours following his start from Kaseberga, Sweden on Friday, marked Kubkowski's fifth attempt at the task. His efforts have raised over 715,000 zloty (€166,000) for children's cancer treatment so far, with donations still pouring in.
The 99-mile swim was nearly as long as the longest unassisted open-water swim ever ratified by the Marathon Swimmers Federation, which was a 168.3km swim by American Sarah Thomas across Lake Champlain in 2017. Kubkowski, a former competitive swimmer, has been trying to swim the route since 2022, coming within 11km of the Polish coast last year before exhaustion and bad weather forced him to abandon his attempt.
Kubkowski broke the world record for the longest distance swum in a swimming pool over 24 hours in 2023, covering an impressive 103.6km (64.5 miles). Another Polish swimmer, Karolina Szczepaniak, is currently attempting to swim the same route, being around 110km into her 172km journey and raising nearly 400,000 zloty for charity.
Szczepaniak, an Olympic swimmer, broke the world record for the longest distance covered by a female swimmer in the Baltic Sea last year, swimming 146.7km (91.2 miles) along with setting a new Polish record for open-water swimming by a woman.
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