Martin Strel

Big River Man Martin Strel
Martin Strel-Big River Man
Born	(1954-10-01) October 1, 1954 (age 62) Mokronog, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia (Now Slovenia)
Nationality	Slovene
Occupation	long-distance swimmer
Known for	Swam world's biggest rivers, holder of 4 Guinness World Records
Website	www.martinstrel.com

Martin Strel ( listen ; born 1 October 1954), is a Slovenian long-distance swimmer, one of the most elite endurance athletes best known for swimming the entire length of various rivers. Strel holds successive Guinness World Records for swimming the Danube river, the Mississippi River, the Yangtze River, and the Amazon River. His motto is "swimming for peace, friendship and clean waters."

Strel was born in the town of Mokronog, in the Slovenian region of Lower Carniola, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Strel's first two river swims were the Krka river (105 km) in his homeland, in 28 hours in 1992, and the boundary Kolpa river (62 kilometres (39 mi)), in 16 hours in 1993. In 2000, he swam the Danube River (2,860 kilometres (1,780 mi)) and achieved the world long distance swimming record (3,004 kilometres (1,867 mi)) in 58 days. In July 2001, he achieved one more world record — 504.5 kilometres (313.5 mi) of non-stop swimming in Danube within 84 hours and 10 minutes. He lost 40 pounds of weight.