In recent weeks, two open water swimmers from opposite sides of the world have pushed past barriers in endurance sport, showing what willpower can achieve. Each tested the limits of body and mind, and each did it in a way that will be remembered.
On August 26, Neil Gilson, from Ilfracombe in Devon, became the first person to swim across Switzerland's ten largest lakes. He finished the last of them, Lake Geneva, in just over 22 hours. The ten swims covered about 230 miles (370km) over two summers.
Gilson, 40, a father of three, stumbled rather than sprang out of the water at the finish. "It's a long swim, 10 hours of darkness and lots of pain," he said. He felt "a little bit broken, lots of little niggles and sore bits, but really pleased that I've managed to get it done."
The finish was an emotional one. His daughter Lily, 12, and son Jack, 10, were in the water waiting for him as he neared the end of the 45-mile length of Lac Léman. "They swam the last 200m with me," Gilson said. "There were tears in my goggles. For the whole challenge, I was envisioning that moment. It kept me going through some difficult times."
Gilson was once ranked second in Britain in the 1500m freestyle. After leaving race swimming, he turned to endurance events. In 2024 he swam Lac Léman in 22 hours and nine minutes, a world record. It wasn't enough for him, and he set his sights on all ten Swiss lakes.
His preparation was modest in appearance. He trained in a leisure centre pool, in the sea off the north Devon coast near his home in Berrynarbor, and in the gym. Incredibly, his training swims rarely exceeded four kilometres.
The challenge brought real setbacks. A swim of about 40 miles in Lake Maggiore this summer nearly broke him. The water was colder than he expected, and he had to swim faster to keep his core temperature up, which burned more energy than planned. He had virtually "no petrol in the tank" for the last few miles. Lake Thun proved surprisingly hard too, as the pressure to complete the challenge and the physical effort drained his reserves and rattled his mind. "My arms don't like me and I feel shattered," he said after climbing out.
Gilson found lakes tougher than the sea. "They're more unpredictable," he said. "You can get some really choppy conditions because of the wind and you can hit walls of cold water."
Lake Geneva was the hardest of all. Eighteen hours in, he thought about giving up. "It was so tough in the night. The current was strong. I felt really close to stopping, but what kept me going was my family waiting there." He swam through the night first to get it out of the way. The water was choppy, he swallowed a lot of it, and he had to dodge logs and debris. A few of them hit him on the head. Currents in the lake can work with a swimmer or against him, he explained, but the water flattened out as night fell.
His fuel was unconventional. "I couldn't stomach gels so I started listening to my body and eating doughnuts," he said. "I smashed through about five throughout the swim, along with some bananas." His support crew followed in a boat, handing him coffee and saying "the right things" to keep him going.
Only 12 people have ever completed the swim across Lake Geneva, the same number as have walked on the moon.
For Gilson, the swim was about more than records. He was raising awareness of Pans and Pandas, neuropsychiatric conditions that affected Jack when he was a toddler. People with the conditions can experience a range of symptoms, from mental health problems to changes in behaviour and difficulty with movement. Jack was diagnosed after catching tonsillitis. "He went to bed a happy, healthy little boy, and woke up as someone we didn't recognise, gripped by aggression, OCD, tics and intense fear. He refused to eat, wouldn't leave the house or even speak. It was terrifying," Gilson said. Jack is doing well, as his presence at the finish showed. "The challenge has always been about more than swimming," Gilson said. "Every lake, every kilometre and every difficult moment has been about raising awareness of Pans and Pandas."
Across the Atlantic, another swimmer was completing a milestone of his own. On September 27, Dr. Bryan Huffman crossed Lake Michigan, a 33-mile swim, becoming the first man to swim all five Great Lakes. Only three women had done it before him.
Huffman came to endurance swimming late. "I swam in high school, I coached in college and did triathlons, and then I basically didn't swim for like 25 years," he said. "So, during COVID, I decided now's the time and started training." He had always wanted to swim the English Channel, and he crossed it in October 2022. He then became the first Michigander to complete swimming's Triple Crown, adding the 20 Bridges Swim around Manhattan Island and the Catalina Channel crossing. Along the way he partnered with the Holland Aquatic Center to raise money for children's swimming lessons.
The Great Lakes were the next goal. He crossed Lake Erie in 2024 and Lake Superior in 2025. In 2026 he swam Lake Ontario, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan in July, August and September respectively. Huron and Michigan were the hardest, he said, and the only two swims he had failed to finish on earlier attempts. This year he went back to complete both.
Cold was the constant danger. Huffman spent hours acclimatising to chilly water and travelled with a large team: three support boats and a medical evacuation plan. "Hypothermia is a big challenge," he said. "It can be deadly if you get cold enough. Fortunately, we didn't have to use most of the plan. I never had more than mild hypothermia." Each lake had its own challenges, he added.
Speaking over Zoom ten days after the Lake Michigan crossing, Huffman was already looking ahead, though perhaps not to another summer of boats. "There's all kinds of other crossings out there, but my wife's sick of chasing me in a boat all summer, so I think we're going to do something different," he said. He is considering some local swims before a challenge such as the Mackinac Bridge swim or the swim to Alcatraz Island in California. His fundraising for the Holland Aquatic Center has reached $80,000 so far.
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*Freelance journalist, who swam the English Channel in 1988
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