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The Longest Swim

On June 5, 2018 Ben Lecomte ( 51 yrs) started a 5,500 mile swim across the Pacific Ocean. He began his swim in Tokyo and will complete his swim when he reaches San Francisco. His swim across the Pacific will take 6 months of swimming about 8 hours a day. He plans on swimming an average of 30 miles a day. His swim will include crossing the Pacific Garbage Patch. Ben is the first person swim across the Atlantic Ocean without a kickboard.

Ben is no stranger to long distance swims; back in 1998 Ben swam across the Atlantic Ocean to support cancer research. During his Atlantic swim Ben was followed by a shark for 5 days, stung by a jellyfish multiple times and encountered 20ft waves. Regardless he completed his Atlantic swim in 73 days.

Ben hopes his swim across the Pacific will bring awareness to the current state of our oceans. Ben and his team will use this as a platform to learn more about our oceans and how to protect them. While Ben swims, a team of scientists, under the direction of 12 scientific institutions, will preform oceanic and medical research. This will give scientists more information on how we interact with the environment and how the environment interacts with us.

Ben and his team are documenting every aspect of their journey. To learn more about The Longest Swim and Ben’s Journey across the Pacific Ocean check out thelongestswim.com or you can follow his journey on Facebook by following @BenLecomteTheSwim