Professor Greg Whyte has today announced his latest solo challenge. Starting on 11 July, Whyte will attempt to swim the 135 miles of the Upper Thames in a time of just four days.
The swim will be to raise awareness of drowning prevention and the importance of water safety in a link to his work with the RLSS and RNLI, but will also be a world record attempt.
Here at 220 Triathlon, we’re proud to partner with Whyte on the challenge and will be covering his training and the challenge as they unfold – plus keep watching for some exciting news about how you can have the opportunity to swim with him, too, to pick up some open-water skills yourself!
The challenge was launched in this video today, where Greg is shown training in much warmer water than he will experience in the Thames:
A post shared by Greg Whyte (@profgregw)
Used to a challenge
A former modern pentathlon Olympian and regular 220 expert and columnist, Greg is no stranger to a challenge. As well as being the coaching support behind numerous Comic Relief sporting challenges over the years – including David Walliams’ Thames swim and Davina McCall’s 500-mile triathlon – he has also completed several of his own challenges.
In 2019 he completed the Norseman, earning the famed black t-shirt, a feat which was covered in the award-winning film Black & Whyte – A Norseman Story.
Then in 2021 when his target race, Patagonman was cancelled, he took on a solo triathlon around the course of the infamous Celtman – only in the depths of winter. That challenge was covered in issue 402 of 220 and will be featuring in a film later in the year.
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To find out more about the challenge as it unfolds, follow @profgregw on Instagram and visit his website.