Lake Taupō

In 1955 Margaret Sweeney from Auckland became the first person to swim across Lake Taupo. This still stands as a huge achievement as only a relatively small number of other swimmers over the next 67 years have completed the swim.  After Margaret’s successful crossing it was 22 years before another swimmer took on the length of the big lake swim, or our FortyPointTwo challenge.
There are now (as at 13 May 2022) 71 swimmers who have completed the big Lake Taupo swim.  83 successful swims in all.  9 of these swims were with wetsuits, so they have been split out into their own section (as in the marathon swimming world wearing a wetsuit voids the swim from a records perspective).

7 people have swum the lake on more than one occasion (John Coutts, Sandra Blewett, Phil Rush, Ben Campbell-Macdonald, Paul Feltoe, Caitlin O’Reilly and Rebecca Hollingsworth). Four people have been determined enough to complete a successful double crossing (Sandra Blewett, Phil Rush, Caitlin O’Reilly and Rebecca Hollingsworth).

The fastest male and overall crossing (long course) was in 1985 by the legendary Kiwi distance swimmer Phil Rush (10hrs 14min). He also holds the record for the fastest double crossing (23hrs 05min).

The fastest female crossing (long course) was in 2008 by Anna Marshall (11hrs 26min). Rebecca Hollingsworth has the record for the fastest female double crossing (27hrs 48min).

The youngest person to complete the challenge is Kaine Thompson – he had just turned 14 when he took on the big lake.

The oldest person to complete the challenge is Gabrielle Gunn at 61 years young.

Stolen from "The Swim | FortyPointTwo (wordpress.com)"