British endurance swimmer becomes first to swim around Iceland | Manchester News

British endurance swimmer Ross Edgley has become the first person to swim around Iceland, after spending nearly four months circumnavigating 1,000 miles (1,609km) of coastline.

The 39-year-old from Cheshire crossed the finish line in Reyjavik on Monday afternoon, where he was greeted with a viking horn and sprayed with champagne.

Mr Edgley has previously joked that the challenge would be “the closest thing yet to swimming around Asgard” – the mythical home of the Norse god Thor.

He said the idea for the swim came from actor Chris Hemsworth, who famously played Thor in the Marvel cinematic universe.

The athlete began the swim in Reyjavik on 17 May, expecting to face choppy waters, killer whales and temperatures as low as 3C.

He completed the challenge by swimming for six hours and then resting for six hours on a dedicated support yacht.

Mr Edgley documented the challenge extensively on social media, sharing videos of himself swimming in the “extreme” conditions and the recovery routines he undertook during his rests.

He said he suffered extreme wetsuit chafing and that parts of his tongue fell off due to saltwater exposure.

Prior to embarking on the challenge, he said he had to consume over 10,000 calories a day to add as much “insulation” as possible in order to combat potential hypothermia.

Edgley wrote on social media after completing the swim that it “wasn’t just a swim” but also a “scientific expedition for ocean conservation”.

The swimmer collected daily eDNA samples from the water surrounding Iceland’s coastline, with the aim of building up a picture of biodiversity and microplastics in the region.

The research was done in collaboration with a number of scientific organisations, including the University of Iceland.

Edgley has completed a number of others swimming endurance challenges, including 1,791 miles (2882km) in 157 days around the coast of Great Britain and 317 miles (510km) along the Yukon River in Canada.

The athlete also featured in several episodes of Hemsworth’s documentary series Limitless.