Ross Edgley isn’t your common athlete. Adventurer is extra apt, however this time period nonetheless doesn’t fairly cowl it.
In 2016 he pulled a automotive 26.2 miles, climbed ropes equal to the peak of Everest and accomplished a triathlon with a 45kg tree hooked up to him. His crowning achievement got here in 2018 when he grew to become the first and only person to swim around Great Britain, then in 2024 he swam 317 miles alongside the Yukon River in Canada to say the longest continuous river swim file.
Now, in 2025, he has his sights set on a brand new world first: swimming round Iceland’s whole shoreline.
Sponsored by BMW and beginning on Might 16, the problem will see him cowl greater than 1,000 miles, going through down towering waves, robust winds and sub-zero temperatures whereas sharing the water with killer whales. to efficiently full it, he must cowl greater than 30km per day – roughly the span of the English Channel.
“Iceland has an incredible historical past of crusing and journey,” Edgley says. “I grew up with my grandad telling me tales of nice explorers navigating each fjord, bay and seashore for the primary time within the late ninth century. Now I’m a little bit older, I’d like to comply with of their footsteps, however since I’m not a lot of a sailor, swimming round it appeared like the following logical selection.”
Not solely will Edgley sort out this mammoth swim, however alongside the best way he goals to assist conservation analysis by accumulating water samples. He’s collaborating with researchers from the College of Iceland and the College of Victoria in Canada, supported by Future Oceans Worldwide, to analyse and map microplastic distribution within the waters round Iceland.
He’s additionally becoming a member of forces with the Marine and Freshwater Analysis Institute of Iceland, as a part of a mission to map biodiversity and determine what marine creatures are current in Iceland’s waters.
“Iceland is one in every of nature’s nice masterpieces, and swimming round it represents a novel alternative to fuse sport, journey and science,” Edgley says. “We’re working with some unimaginable researchers from the College of Iceland and the Marine and Freshwater Analysis Institute to conduct pioneering analysis that can assist protect and defend our oceans.”
Christophe Pampoulie, analysis director of the Marine and Freshwater Analysis Institute of Iceland, provides: “Coastal areas are not often studied in Iceland as a result of lack of small analysis boats. The gathering of environmental DNA by Ross and his workforce will drastically enhance our information on species distribution and biodiversity.”
Forward of the problem Edgley will likely be coaching to construct power, endurance and a novel set of abilities to see him safely across the shoreline, setting a brand new file this spring.
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