Nathalie Pohl became the 33rd person and first German woman to complete the Ocean’s Seven this September.
29-year-old Pohl has been working for nearly a decade to complete the seven open water swims that make up Ocean’s Seven. The challenge was created as the swimming equivalent to the Seven Summits mountaineering feat. The swims, considered some of the most difficult strait swims in the world, include:
- Cook Strait, between New Zealand’s North and South islands
- North Channel, between Ireland and Scotland
- Strait of Gibraltar, between Spain and Morocco
- Kaiwi Channel, between Hawaiian Moloka’i and O’ahu Islands
- Tsugaru Strait, between Japanese Honshu and Hokkaido islands
- English Channel, between England and France
- Santa Catalina Canal, between Los Angeles and Santa Catalina Island
Pohl kicked off the challenge in 2016 by setting a world record in the Strait of Gibraltar, completing the strait in 2 hours and 53 minutes. Her second world record came in 2020, completing the Jersey Strait sector of the English Channel 5 hours and 29 minutes.
In 2023, she successfully crossed the Cook Strait after failing twice, becoming the fastest European woman to do so.
She completed the Ocean’s Seven on September 15, crossing the North Channel.
Pohl was unavailable to comment on her feat.
She released a book, “Im Meer Bin Ich Zu Hause” (I’m at home in the sea) earlier this year. She documents her open water swimming journey and motivational content to over 100,000 followers on Instagram as well as her blog.
Having been bitten by a shark while swimming in the ocean, I wouldn’t even contemplate swimming any of those sharky straits.
I used to night dive off the channel islands. I swim 1000’s of yards daily. I won’t even swim in a lake anymore. Can’t imagine what you must feel.
I have done one of the oceans seven.
It is amazing to see someone young complete this.
You have to travel the world to complete this.