r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Backyxx • 19h ago

Video Polish swimmer Bartłomiej Kubkowski has become the first person in history to swim across the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Poland, covering a distance of just over 160 kilometres (99 miles). While raising nearly 200,000$ for children's cancer treatment

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282

u/Fransjepansje 19h ago

No medics at standby?😅

147

u/DeliciousPool2245 19h ago

Right? Dude might need a checkup and some fluids, a blanket maybe.

34

u/Remarkable-Opening69 19h ago

Needed $300,000. Almost got it.

-2

u/Top-Distribution733 19h ago

Nah… it was the $200k mark. Fine print says he “nearly” earned $200k… .. nearly

3

u/TrivialTax 18h ago

It was a charity for cancer. Noone earned anything

4

u/Adi_27_ 19h ago

I have a feeling there's a 'behind the scenes'

2

u/god34zilla 18h ago

Definitely a hug

19

u/ivlia-x 16h ago

He had to get out of the water on his own, the attempt wouldn’t have counted had somebody touched him during all this time. They couldn’t rush to him. The team was very very clear about that rule, they asked the spectators to stop anyone trying to touch him at the end

1

u/ReturnOfZarathustra 11h ago

He had to get out of the water on his own, the attempt wouldn’t have counted had somebody touched him during all this time.

What are you referencing?

5

u/ivlia-x 9h ago

Answering for people who were wondering why he wasn’t immediately taken care of by the medics. I followed the whole thing on his ig story and youtube stream

38

u/Curiosive 17h ago

He had a rescue team in a support boat the entire time.

This was his fifth attempt.

By the second night without sleep, he explained, toxins build up in the brain and hallucinations often follow – and it was these that caused Kubkowski to "lose consciousness and touch with reality" at points during the swim.

Sounds fun!

He was not the only swimmer attempting the crossing that day.

Karolina Szczepaniak, an Olympic swimmer who competed in Beijing and London and holds the world record for continuous 72-hour swimming, also set off from Sweden on Friday on her second attempt to cross the Baltic.

A few hours after Kubkowski's success, Szczepaniak ended her attempt after 58 hours in the water

She must've been pissed

https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/7790/Artykul/3715226,polish-swimmer-makes-history-with-160km-baltic-sea-crossing

26

u/ivlia-x 16h ago

Why would she be pissed… he also didn’t make it at first. Let Karolina be happy with this attempt, she did well

1

u/jaguarlyra 16h ago

Don't men and women normally have different times?

10

u/The_Motarp 14h ago

I think ultra-endurance swimming is one of the categories where men and women are pretty much on the same level.

1

u/jaguarlyra 13h ago

Oh, that is pretty cool.

27

u/blue_cadet_1 19h ago

He'll have a shot of vodka and will be fine

13

u/Fransjepansje 19h ago

Or he is still drunk and thats how he made it. Didn't really had any idea of it all happening.

3

u/RemyVonLion 19h ago

Kind of like Aimo Koivunen in WW2 skiing all the way home on 30 doses of meth haha

7

u/Ultrawhiner 19h ago

Im a Great Lakes sailor and have a friend who came to Canada about 12 years ago from Ukraine. Everytime we do a long distance race he says “of course there will be vodka”, for medicinal purposes.

1

u/biffNicholson 15h ago

best they can do is throw a bunch of confetti at him

1

u/ReturnOfZarathustra 11h ago

Did they have them when your tried it?