The Cadiz Freedom Swim is an extreme

open water swimming Open water swimming is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers. The beginning of the modern age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when Lord Byron swa ...

race from Robben Island to Big Bay,Freedom Swim information SASPA
,

Bloubergstrand Bloubergstrand is a seaside suburb of the City of Cape Town, South Africa, along the shores of Table Bay, due north of the city centre of Cape Town. The name Bloubergstrand literally means "blue mountain beach" in Afrikaans, and is derived fr ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. It takes place annually close to Freedom Day (27 April, the date of South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994 when Nelson Mandela was elected President, marking the end of the

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

era and the freedom of the people).About the Freedom Swim
The Cadiz Freedom Swim is recognised as one of the world's most extreme sea races due to the extremely cold water of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

(averages around 13–14 °Celsius), unpredictable sea and weather conditions, and the presence of

great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is nota ...

History

The first officially recorded Robben Island swim happened in 1909 when Henry Charteris Hooper swam from the island to the old Cape Town harbour, it took him 6 hours 55 minutes to swim the distance of about 11 km. Cadiz Holdings began sponsoring an annual Robben Island to Bloubergstrand event in 2007 which then became known as the Cadiz Freedom Swim. The event was held for the benefit of Vista Nova School.Charity for the benefit of Vista Nova
The record for the fastest swim was set in 2005, in a time just over 1 hour 33 minutes, while the record for the most crossings is 68 times by Theodore Yach.World Marathon Swimming Records (in AFRICA)
/ref> The swim is attempted by people of all ages – the youngest person to complete it being 12 years and the oldest 65 years.Freedom Swim age statistics

References

External links

Cadiz Freedom SwimVista Nova SchoolCadiz Open Water Swimming Development TrustCadiz Freedom Swim Facebook Group

History

References

External links

Further reading