British explorer aims to emulate Lord Byron with Asia to Europe swim

Race spans 6.5km across the Bosphorus, navigating one of world’s busiest shipping lanes, and is seen as the pinnacle of open water swimming competition

Chris Brown swims at Ponds Forge in the Sheffield in National Champs 50m freestyle (Jam Press)

British explorer Chris Brown is set to take part in an annual swimming race between the continents of Asia and Europe, aiming to emulate the achievement of Lord Byron in 1810.

Brown, 61, of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, will compete alongside 2,000 other people in the Bosphorus Cross Continental Swim, a 6.5km race from Kanlıca (Asia) to Kurucesme (Europe) on 20 August.

He will cross the Bosphorus, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, which will be closed to tankers, cruise ships and other ocean-going traffic for three hours while the race takes place.

More than two hundred years ago the challenge was famously taken on by romantic poet Lord Byron who swam the strait, known as the Dardanelles, in homage to the Greek classical myth of Hero and Leander.

Lord Byron was just 22 years old when he completed what is now seen as the pinnacle of open ocean swimming, in just one hour and 10 minutes.

Brown said:  “Any adventure of this sort has to be undertaken with plenty of advance planning and, on the day, you need the support of a safety crew.

Chris Brown has a Guinness World Record for diving, and says he hopes for a strong time in the Bosphorus race (Jam Press)

“To complete the swim over 200 years ago with no help from briefings [or the] support boats that exist today is just phenomenal.

“It’s a different kettle of fish now.”

While the normal water temperature is between 20 and 24 degrees, Chris may be swimming against strong currents which are common in the area.

Cooler, less saline water from the Black Sea flows down the Bosphorus so if he can catch that flow, normally central in the strait, it will significantly reduce his time.

The event takes place every year for swimmers from around the world.

But it is only open to those with a swimming competition licence, like Brown, or who are sponsored by an accredited coach.

Each swimmer is individually timed and the race starts with competitors jumping off a ferry.

There are inflatable boats and canoes to help anyone who succumbs to cramp, cold or fatigue during the gruelling swim.

Chris Brown swims around Necker Island. He holds the record time for 2021 (Jam Press)

Fitness fanatic Brown, who has been swimming at least twice a week to prepare for the race, said: “I heard about it and it sounded like a fantastic challenge to swim from Asia to Europe.

“I’m a relatively strong open-water swimmer and held the record for swimming around Necker Island in 2021.

“For this race, normally I would expect to take around one hour and 40 minutes to swim 6,500m. But I hope to do it in around one hour and 30 minutes if I get the currents right.

“Lord Byron did it in one hour and 10 minutes, it would be amazing if I was that quick, but he was in his 20s when he did it.”

Businessman Brown, who has competed in dozens of triathlons including seven World Championships, added: “In some areas there are strong counter-currents pushing you back up the Strait.

“So, if you get into one of those, you swim hard and go nowhere fast.

“Apparently you can tell if you are in the right place by the temperature dropping another couple of degrees, so it will be quite chilly.”

One of Brown’s ‘claims to fame’ is that he already “swam from Britain to America” – in reality a stretch from the British Virgin Islands to the US Virgin Islands.

He holds the Guinness World Record for the most dives into a swimming pool in one hour – 130 on 30 November 2021, during lockdown.

Brown, who also posts on TikTok @ChrisBrownExplores, is currently on a mission to be the first person to visit all of the World’s Poles Of Inaccessibility.

Poles of Inaccessibility are points on the map that are the furthest from the ocean in any direction (or, in the case of Maritime Poles, the furthest from land in any direction).

Brown has also been to the South Pole with the second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, and Hamish Harding, the Scottish billionaire who perished in the Titan submersible tragedy earlier this summer.

Brown’s story hit the headlines amid the search for the doomed tourist sub when it emerged he was a friend of Hamish’s and one of the first people to put his name down for a trip down to the Titanic wreck.

But he eventually asked for his deposit back due to safety concerns.

Chris logs all his expeditions on https://brown.co.uk/.