Martin Strel

Martin Strel ( born October 1, 1954 in Mokronog ( Yugoslavia, now Slovenia) is a Slovenian ultra-long distance swimmer and holds several world records in this discipline.

Career

His career began in 1992 with the two rivers Krka Slovenia (105 km in 28 hours) and Kolpa (62 km in 16 hours). His first world record he won in 2000 when he in 58 days 3004 km in the Danube sponge. Also in the Danube he achieved in July 2001, the world record non-stop swimming by 504 km back put in 84:10 hours. His next projects in 2002 were the Mississippi River ( 3885 km ), which he fully floating down in 68 days, and in 2003 the Argentine Paraná River ( 3998 km ). On 10 June 2004 with the Chinese Yangtze River he took before the third longest river in the world. He reached Shanghai in 40 days and so one day earlier than planned.

He attracted particular attention, as he floated down the Amazon River in the spring of 2007. The distance from the start to the finish in Peru in Belém (Pará ) was 5268 km. This company is also applied to hazards such as piranhas and alligators and the Amazon flood wave Pororoka to escape. Although Strel has managed the route and thus set a new world record, he then had to face greater health problems. His son took his exhaustion as follows: " He was at absolute zero ."

Although media then speculated, the Nile would be the next logical extension of the swimming career, Martin Strel completed this categorically. In his opinion, the Nile is long, but otherwise no major challenge. The Amazon is simply a completely different caliber ..

During his actions Martin Strel only sleeps about five hours per day. For a world record attempt, he trained about one and a half years, and then takes six to seven months to recover.

Big River Man

" Big River Man" is a documentary by John Maringouin from the year 2009. The film follows Martin Strel during his Amazonian Durchschwimmung February to April 2007. The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and won the Price "Excellence in Cinematography Award ". The film is distributed by Revolver Entertainment and the Discovery Channel.