A 31-year old endurance swimmer has likely broken a world record for the fastest swim across Lake Geneva. British swimmer Sam Farrow completed the 72.8km stretch from the Château de Chillon to the Bains des Pâquis in 22 hours and 48 minutes.
Farrow now must wait until the end of this month to find out if she has officially broken the world record as her swim is being ratified. But her spirits were high after her swim, describing her possible record as a “complete shock.”
“I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet,” she said. “We went out there to try and get the fastest British female record and just in hopes of finishing it. I wanted to see what I could do. I never expected to get the overall fastest female or the time that I got.”
During the swim, Farrow was not allowed to touch the boat that was accompanying her, nor were any assistants allowed to touch her. This meant that she was treading water during food breaks.
“They’ll put carbohydrate powders and little snacks in bottles on a rope, and they throw it out to me and I have to tread water while I eat.”
The mother of two said at the 55km mark that her back fatigued and her muscles began cramping.
“The last 15km was agony,” she said. “Every so often I would have to stop swimming and curl up into a ball to bend my spine.”
Her positive outlook sustained her determination.
“I would just make myself think: you’re in the middle of Geneva at 4am, it’s absolutely beautiful. How lucky are you? Not many people get the chance to do this. Every time I had something potentially negative come in, I just tried to switch it.”
Before her Lake Geneva swim, Farrow swam across Loch Awe, Loch Lomond and Loch Ness, known in Scotland as the Scottish Triple Crown, which are roughly between 36km and 41km long.
She commenced training for her latest swim in December 2023, balancing her caregiving duties to her two children as well as her job as an infant feeding practitioner and open water swimming coach.
“I’ve not done as much training as most of us would do,” she said. “I have two jobs and two children, so it’s definitely a juggling act.”
The first person to swim the entire length of Lake Geneva was Swiss Alain Charmey in August 1986. Since then, more than a dozen people have swam the lake, including Australian Helen Conway, who completed the swim at age 40 in 2017. In 2021, Paralympic swimmer Melanie Barratt became the first blind person to swim the lake, describing the achievement as “surreal” and “one of the most amazing experiences of my life.”