Poland’s Bartłomiej Kubkowski broke the world record for distance swam in a 25-meter pool in 24 hours, swimming 103.58 kilometers (64.36 miles) on Saturday, Jan. 18.
Courtesy of Przemysław Zawalich
The feat took place at the Koszalin Water Park in Koszalin, Poland, where the 29-year-old covered 4143 lengths of the indoor pool over the course of the 24 hours.
The previous world record was 102.8km (63.8 miles), set by Dutch swimmer Maarten van der Weijden, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist in the men’s 10km marathon swim.
Kubkowski improved the world record by 780m, taking to Instagram afterward to thank followers and spectators for their support throughout the event.
Swimming 103.58km in 24 hours breaks down to an average pace of about 1:23 per 100 meters, excluding any breaks – a pace roughly six-tenths-per-100 faster than the former record.
The swim also marked a charitable event, as funds to help Polish children were collected for the Cancer Fighters Foundation.
Courtesy of Przemysław Zawalich
Kubkowski was a professional swimmer for 15 years and now dedicates his time entirely to ultra swimming.
No stranger to impressive feats in the water, Kubkowski previously won a silver medal at the World Ice Swimming Championships in 2022 and has attempted to swim across the Baltic Sea from Kołobrzeg to Ystad three times, a distance of 170km.
His first attempt to cross the Baltic was in 2021, when he swam 115km in 32 hours and 30 minutes, followed by reaching 116km and 897m in 2022 and 71km in 2023. He plans to take on the challenge again this year in 2025.
Curious how the breaks work: “excluding any breaks”
The wording is a little weird, but I think it’s saying that the pace/100 would be faster if you took into account the time taken for breaks not that the breaks are subtracted from the 24 hour period. Ex. If he takes a 1 minute break for water every 3000 meters his pace would actually be 2 seconds faster/100.
For yard swimmers he’s doing about 1:19.00 per 100
Congrats on an amazing swim. Fantastic endurance. In my younger days, I would have been hard-pressed to do 10 x 10km workouts across 5 days.
Congrats on an amazing swim. Fantastic endurance. In my younger days, I would have been hard-pressed to do 10 x 10km workouts across 5 days.
Yes, obscene mental and physical endurance feat 👏👏👏.