Croatia’s famous long-distance swimmer Dina Levačić has announced that her next challenge is the Tsugaru Strait in Japan, one of the seven channels in the world every endurance swimmer seeks to complete.
This will be Dina’s fourth swimming marathon out of the seven major international swimming marathons she intends to complete in her career, reports Dalmacija Danas on August 9, 2019.
Due to respiratory problems at the end of July, Levačić had to give up her second attempt to swim the 54 kilometer trip from Vis to Split, though it didn’t take long for her to announce her next world venture.
“At the end of August this year, I am leaving to swim the Tsugaru Strait in Japan, which is considered one of the hardest swimming marathons in the world because of the strong currents. This will be a big challenge for me because there are tuna and sea snakes in that channel, but it is not life-threatening,” said the 23-year-old from Solin, emphasizing that the Tsugaru Strait is 30 kilometers long and that only 30 swimmers have managed to swim it so far.
The ‘Ocean Seven’ is a series of seven international swimming marathons, modeled after the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge. Dina Levačić has already swum three marathon channels from the ‘Ocean Seven’ series: Catalina Channel, English Channel (La Manche) and Moloka’i Channel. After the Tsugaru Strait in Japan, Dina will still need to overcome the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland, the Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa and the Cook Strait in New Zealand.
Dina Levačić is an open swimming champion and member of the long-distance swimming club in Split. She first recorded impressive results at her Argentine tour at the age of 17, placing fourth in the Rosario marathon and securing sixth place in the 57-kilometer marathon from Santa Fe to Coronda. This Argentine trifecta was the longest open-swimming marathon in the world, following an 88-kilometer route. Dina finished in less than 10.5 hours, and placed 5th overall, less than an hour after the winner of the competition.
Dina then accepted the marathon challenge of her career – the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming. It began with the Marathon Island Marathon Swim, which saw the Split native swim 48.5 km in 7:33:50. Dina then tackled the Catalina Channel, where she swam 32.5 km in 9:47:53. The infamous part of the Triple Crown, however, was the English Channel – a 33.7 km stretch between England and France. Dina completed the challenge in 11 hours and 42 minutes and thus became the first Croatian female athlete to swim the La Manche in its entirety, and the first Croatian athlete to complete the Triple Crown. Not to mention that Dina is also the sixth athlete in history to have completed the Triple Crown in under 90 days.
Last August, Dina conquered the 42-kilometer long Molokai channel, from Molokai Island to Oahu Island, Hawaii, in 13 hours.
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