The Mexican swimmer missed out on his dreams of making the Olympics, but in later life he found a remarkable talent for feats of endurance
Mexican open-water swimmer Antonio Argüelles dove into the North Channel on the Irish side. His goal was to swim from Northern Ireland to Scotland through the channel, a treacherous 35km route known for big breakers, fierce storms and the lion’s-mane jellyfish, the marine dweller Argüelles fears the most.
On that August morning in 2017, the weather finally cooperated after two weeks of waiting, and the sea was quiet until some last-minute drama. With a push at the halfway point, Argüelles was able to cross the channel and write his name into history as the oldest swimmer at the time to complete a series of challenging routes across the globe called the Oceans Seven (US swimmer Elizabeth Fry broke his age record in 2019). Now he has written about the milestone, and a lifetime of overcoming challenges, in his new book The Forever Swim.
