Italian Sets World Record With Lake Titicaca Swim

Andrea Oriana, an Italian former Olympic swimmer, has set a new record on the high-altitude and chilly Lake Titicaca, the world’s highest navigable lake that is surrounded by Andean mountain ranges between Bolivia and Peru.

The 47-year-old swam across 20 kilometers (12.43 miles) of the lake without a wetsuit in a total of 5 hours and 33 minutes, breaking the previous record for distance swum on the lake at his third attempt, despite bracing waters and thin air at 3,812 meters (12,506 feet) above sea level.

“The difficulty is the altitude, it does not help you to swim well and it slows down your strokes due to the cold because you feel the 12 degrees Celsius (53.6° Fahrenheit) without protection, and it feels very, very cold,” Oriana said.

See Reuters