OmniathlonOWS

Open water race collections

Hand-picked lists from across the calendar: races grouped by what sets them apart — history, distance, place.

The monuments of open water swimming

Open water swimming has its monument races: sea, lake and river swims that towns and clubs have organised for generations. This page gathers the oldest events on our calendar: every race here held its first edition by 1975, the oldest are past their hundredth year, and all of them are still being swum. They are ordered by year of birth, oldest first, with the date of the next edition, the distances on the programme and a line of history for each — who founded them, which waters they cross, what stopped them for years and what brought them back.

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The longest open water swims in the world

Open water races from 10 kilometres up, ordered by distance: marathon swims, crossings and ultra-distance events. For each race: next edition, location and distances on offer.

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Open water swimming races in Germany

From Lake Constance to the Baltic, from the Bavarian lakes to the great rivers: where, when and how to race in open water in Germany, with every race in the calendar.

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River swimming races

From the Paraná to the Thames, from the Danube in winter to the reopened Seine: where, how and when to race in the world's rivers, with every river race in the calendar.

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Swim around the island: open water races around islands

From Manhattan to Levanzo, from Lake Bolsena to the Stockholm archipelago: the races where you swim around an entire island, with the islands' stories and the dates of every race in the calendar.

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More races, country by country

Albania 1

Argentina 30

Australia 67

Austria 6

Barbados 1

Bermuda 1

Brazil 62

Caribbean Netherlands 1

Cayman Islands 1

Costa Rica 1

Curaçao 1

Denmark 1

Dominican Republic 1

Egypt 1

El Salvador 1

Estonia 1

Finland 4

French Polynesia 2

Greece 17

Guatemala 1

Guernsey 1

Hong Kong 3

Ireland 5

Israel 2

Italy 36

Jamaica 1

Kyrgyzstan 1

Malaysia 2

Mexico 20

Netherlands 2

Norway 2

Réunion 1

Romania 1

Russia 9

Samoa 1

Senegal 2

Slovenia 1

Spain 40

Sweden 4

Taiwan 1

Thailand 3

Turks & Caicos Islands 1

U.S. Virgin Islands 2

Ukraine 1

United Kingdom 22

United States 63

Uruguay 7