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the problem here is that while both articles are attempting to deal with the same subject, neither is the exact, correct name.

• long distance swimming = swimming for a long distance, but with no indicator as to where it takes place, you could do it in a city pool. it would be terribly boring, but it could be done.
• open water swimming = swimming in open water, but no indicator as to whether this is recreational or competative, and if it is competative it gives no indication of the distance, which could be quite short in a small lake or river.

while the olympics are not the be all and end all of sport (how can they when have seperate and unequal sports for women and can't decide whether to call them 'women' or 'ladies'), they do seem to have chosen the more unique name which will probably lead to more understanding by the general public, considering that when most people think of swimming they think of natatoriums and relative long distance swimming does exist in that context. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 151.201.133.107 (talk • contribs) 12 May 2006 .

Long and short are subjective and relative terms. There are many accomplished masters swimmers who consider 800 yards of freestyle to be a long distance event but who would nonetheless concede that it is a short distance compared to say 3 or 5 miles. In turn, a 3 mile race would be considered a relatively short distance to someone training to swim the English Channel. In other words, the terms "short distance" and "long distance" are not helpful in the absence of an official (though probably somewhat arbitrary) cut-off point on which a representative body of swimmers can agree.

As it happens, the International Swimming Federation ([1]) has adopted a set of open water swimming rules that begin with the following definitions:

Open water swimming shall be defined as any competition that takes place in rivers, lakes, or oceans.

Long distance swimming shall be defined as any event in open water competitions up to a maximum of 10 kilometers.

Marathon swimming shall be defined as any event in open water competitions over 10 kilometers.

So for FINA, long distance swimming is a subset of open water swimming, and cannot, according to its definition, be undertaken in a pool. This is consistent with some swimmers' views that extended swimming in a pool is a form of training for open water events, and does not constitute long distance swimming in itself. A principal argument in favour of this view is that touching a boat, structure, side or bottom of a watercourse is seen to be breaking the swim, and will generally result in disqualification in open water events of any length.

The inclusion of the word competition in the FINA definitions reflects the Association's concern with sanctioned, multi-competitor events, and is misleading. Open water swims are often undertaken alone (not counting an escort boat), for example in crossings of the English Channel, Catalina Channel, or the Great Lakes which separate Canada and the United States. Possibly one could consider these solo swims as part of a larger competition that has been going on for centuries but some solo swimmers would certainly object to this idea, not least because it is presumptuous and easily refuted by contemporary participants in the sport.

FINA curiously omits to specify a minimum length of the long distance event, so that 100 metres would qualify just as much as 10 kilometres. FINA should perhaps consider adopting 1500 metres as the lower cut-off for long distance swimming, since that is the longest distance recognized by the same body for swimming other than open water swimming, and is correspondingly the longest distance for which one can obtain an official world record in a pool.

Conclusion: The entries on open-water swimming and long-distance swimming should definitely be merged with "open-water swimming" used as the page title.

--Gus Delmar 22:13, 31 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Historically, 10ks have not been considered marathon swims. The marathon swimming community has historically reserved the descriptor "marathon swim" as anything 25km or over.

Penny Lee Dean's "Open Water Swimming" describes: "Long distance swimming is any distance from 1.5K (about 1 mile) to 25 K (16 miles). Marathon swimming is all swims over 25k (16 miles) or a swim lasting over 5 hours." (page 2, copyright 1998)

The "10k= a marathon swim" is a FINA thing, and FINA only hit the scene post 2000. The Channel Swimming Association, however, has been around since 1927.

192.75.95.126 (talk) 00:50, 20 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, with Gus, 'Conclusion: The entries on open-water swimming and long-distance swimming should definitely be merged with "open-water swimming" used as the page title.' The division is arbitrary. One could base it on calorie-equivalents; or event-death-rates among athletes (since 1985, 1 in 3,000 people who attempted the EC have died during their swim).

Against merging "open-water swimming" and "long-distance swimming", especially under the "open-water swimming" title - the present article gives example of long distance swimming in a pool. Also, merge under "open-water swimming" is unsuitable as a joint title as open-water swims are not necessarily particularly long distance - the present Open water swimming article includes "wild swimming" where the emphasis is on the type of water rather than the distance covered. FrankSier (talk) 23:27, 2 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Could we get a photo of Martin Strel in action, for this article? Badagnani (talk) 22:22, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

At the moment this article seems to be (mainly) about swims defined by various organizations, and with competitions defined by organizations.

There are other long-distance swims that are "created" by various individuals, across or along various geographically-defined areas.

There have been several claimed/reported swims across the Atlantic, by Guy Delage, Benoît Lecomte and Jennifer Figge (either claimed by themselves, or reported by others as such) - and there may be others. All the ones I have come across so far have been disputed by others, or, as in Jennifer Figge's, case by the swimmer themselves [2]. Ben Fogle is proposing a cross Atlantic swim in 2014 with logging of start and end positions each day [3].

Benoît Lecomte proposed a swim across the Pacific for 2012, but it does not seem to have happened.

Martin Strel has performed several of these, along rivers, and is currently, 1 March 2014, holder of the Guinness World Record for what they call the longest journey swim [4]

I suggest that the new article is called "Journey Swimming", as this is the term used by Guinness World Records but I do not want to start it yet, without further discussion. FrankSier (talk) 11:53, 1 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I have done some more thinking and research...

Is concept of "journey swim" a good one? Is the name "journey swim" a good one? Has the name been used anywhere apart from the one place in Guinness World Records that I came across in relation to Martin Strel?

Is the concept the same as "(1) swims in which the start date and start time are chosen by the individual swimmer (often called solo-swims)" as in the present article? Probably not quite the same concept, as "solo swims" include pool swims.

Another possible term I have come across is "endurance swimmer", but it links back to "Long distance swimming" article in WP.

I have been through from A to F so far in the category "Long-distance swimmers", and the people do seem to mainly divide between ones known for swimming across, along, or between particular geographic locations, and ones who have won such things as competitions, championships or medals. (Though there are a few who are are known for both.) So new Category does seem reasonable to me.

These are the ones I would categorise as "journey swimmers" (so I am suggesting this new category as well, though not necessarily using this name if a better one can be found):

Antonio Abertondo

Ram Barkai

Mona Bell

Tom Blower

Julie Bradshaw

Joseph N. Callahan

Florence May Chadwick

Bula Choudhury

Philippe Croizon

Horace Davenport

Guy Delage

Barrie Devenport

Gertrude Ederle

Jon Erikson

Orlando Fernández

Brenda Fisher

That is 16, out of 50, from A to F inclusive. FrankSier (talk) 23:03, 2 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I was wondering about swimming in ancient times. What are the longest swims that were known (even if just by legend) to have been done? This would be "journey" swimming in the sense that you're not just swimming as stunt but more of a mode of transportation. Certainly some ancient islanders must've been known to swim from island to island.207.91.187.66 (talk) 16:54, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]