This swim is the historic, classic “around–the-Island” swim begun in 1977 by Anna Fugina. Anna had suffered injuries from a car accident and she chose to begin swimming as therapy to assist in her recovery. As her health improved, so did her swimming ability and love for the sport.
Anna wondered if it was possible to swim the circumference of the Island of Key West. Though she inquired, she could find no evidence that anyone had even attempted the challenge, much less completed the swim. She concluded that someone had to be the first, so on July 4th she entered the water at Mallory Square at Key West Harbor. She completed the swim in 12:59:00. Later, she found that if she studied the tidal current, the swim would be an easier task. Anna swam again in 1978 and improved her time considerably, finishing at 8:00 hours.
The current record finishing time is 3:31:28 set by Gabe Lindsey in 1999. Any first-place swimmer who beats that record time will be rewarded with $1,000 at our awards ceremony following the Swim. Every entered swimmer will receive a technical t-shirt listing the overall first place swimmers and their finish times from 1977 to present.