The Midmar Mile is a swimming race held annually in February at the

Midmar Dam Midmar Dam is a combined gravity & earth-fill type dam and recreation area located near Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, Howick and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Boating, human swimming, swimming, waterskiing, picnicking, and fishing are popular pastimes ...

north of

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...

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 countri ...

. Each year, it draws thousands of competitors, from serious international athletes and

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

medallists to purely recreational swimmers. The inaugural Midmar Mile was held in 1974."Meet 'Buthie' (87), The Only Person To Have Officially Swum Every Midmar Mile"
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Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast. History Pioneered by Westinghouse The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness New ...

''. 28 January 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2022. In 2009 the event, in which 13 755 competitors finished the race, was recognised by the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

as the world's largest open water

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

event.Official Midmar website
The event gains its name from the location (

) and the distance (roughly ). A unique feature of the race is that while the distance covered is always a mile, depending on rainfall and the water levels in the dam, the distance swum varies from year to year. In years with poor rainfall, competitors are subject to the infamous Midmar sprint start: a bedlam of bodies sprinting across the muddy lake-shore and through the shallows until the water is deep enough to swim. In order to handle the vast number of competitors, the swimmers swim out in 5 groups at three-minute intervals in 8 separate mile races over two days; the group division the swimmer is assigned to is based on a qualifying time in a previous (qualifying) event, with the fastest group leaving first.

References

External links

Official website

Open water swimming competitions Swimming competitions in South Africa {{SouthAfrica-sport-stub

See also

References

External links