Ultraswim 33.3 From Byron’s Hellespont to Skopelos

Why Open Water Keeps Pulling Us In

Before open water swimming had GPS tracks and timing chips, it had stories.

A poet who swam between continents (1810)

In 1810, a 22-year-old Lord Byron swam the Hellespont (the Dardanelles) from Sestos to Abydos. He was inspired by the myth of Hero and Leander and wanted to test himself against it. Later, he wrote about the feat, half boast, half grin, in a short poem and in letters home, turning a private exploit into a public legend. The image stuck, a Romantic poet literally crossing from Europe to Asia, salt-sprayed and triumphant. That single act, and the way Byron framed it, put long swims into the cultural imagination of Britain and beyond. Byron couldn’t resist turning his crossing into verse. One line, in particular, has echoed ever since:

“And swam for Love, as I for Glory.” Lord Byron, written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos (1810)

Team Envol/Bromma, Left to Right - Filipe, Tom, Åsa, Liza, Emma and Jesper

My Race Story - Tom Jenkinson

Compared with #2 and #5 in Montenegro, I had no ambitions of glory this time, no chasing places or clinging to the draft of a faster swimmer. This one was purely for fun, for the love of open water. Add in the luxury of five-star living and a morning baptism in Poseidon’s realm — waking in comfort, then answering the ancient call of the waters. Nereus would approve of this old man too.

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