Endurance swimmer Oly Rush has gained a spot in the book of Guinness World Records 2024 for ‘fastest swim around Grand Cayman’.
On 17 May 2022, the English eco-campaigner completed a 36-hour, 59-minute ‘odyssey’ around the island. He was the first person to ever attempt the swim.
“He set out on the pioneering circumnavigation – a distance of 95.5 kilometres (59.3 miles) – to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the ocean,” the book says.
Rush’s swim was in support of Plastic Free Cayman and its mission to rid the waters around the islands of plastic pollution. He raised more than $20,000 for the cause.
Rush, who is based in the UK, told the Compass that it was “really cool” to be featured in the record book, but more for the attention it could bring to the cause, rather than the accolade.
He said the growing issue of plastic pollution is very important to him because, “I just love the ocean”.
“From a very young age, I was always down on the beach. I was always in the sea swimming, kayaking, whatever it was, I was just obsessed with the sea,” he said.
“And then in more recent years, I’ve noticed that plastic is a huge problem, but it’s also one that we can all have an impact on. We can actually do something about it.”
As part of his mission to clear the oceans of plastic, Rush has set up Project Planet Earth, which has recently been given charity status.
Through the charity, he helps to clean beaches, raise awareness, and inspire children during school visits.
‘Just crazy’
Rush, who has several links to the Cayman Islands through family and friends, said he had visited the islands before his big 2022 swim.
“I kind of noted then when I was there that there was a lot of plastic,” he told the Compass.
“There are beaches that are looked after, Seven Mile and that kind of area, but if you go up the East End… the amount of plastic there is just crazy.”
Rush had the idea that he could swim around the island to raise awareness of plastic pollution, but the journey turned out to be “a lot bigger than we expected”, he said.
A documentary on the whole adventure will be released in February, and a trailer is available now to watch on YouTube.
The swimmer said he hoped the Grand Cayman adventure had inspired people to “look at the way we’re treating the planet” and the amount of single-use plastic.
Endurance
As a former competitive swimmer, Rush said he got into endurance swimming after a particularly busy time at work.
“I decided to take a day off, went down to the beach, noticed how much plastic and rubbish there was and thought, ‘What can I do about it?’.
“I started sharing pictures but realised that was only really in an echo chamber, the sort of people that were following are the people that were picking up plastic anyway.
“So I decided to do a swim, and I did a 100-mile swim here in the UK, along the Jurassic Coast over 10 days.
“I then realised how much I love swimming and kind of got a bit addicted to it. It’s almost a bit like a kind of meditation, the long swims.”
In 2021, Rush swam around the Isle of Wight, later featuring in the Guinness World Records for the fastest swim around the Isle of Wight wearing a wetsuit.
“Oly Rush (UK) completed the round-island journey in a lightning-fast 15 hr 9 min on 22–23 August 2021,” the website says.
“He took on the swim to raise awareness around plastic pollution in the oceans.
“This bettered the previous wetsuit record of 25 hr 56 min, set by Scott Dawson (UK) on 31 August 2016, by more than 10 hours.”
Of that achievement, he told the Compass, “That was a really great swim, and then I just thought, we’d up it one more.”
This year, Rush became the first person to swim around the Greek Island of Ithaca.
He plans to do even more swims, and while he did not give away any hints on the location, he said it is going to be “even further”.
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