O'Reilly Becomes Youngest in History to Complete the Oceans Seven

Caitlin O'Reilly (North Shore) has recently become the youngest swimmer in history to complete the Oceans Seven. At 20 years 7 months and 15 days of age, O'Reilly completed the Molokai Channel on 24 October 2024, becoming the youngest of 34 people to have achieved the feat, and only the second Kiwi to do so after Kimberley Chambers completed it in 2014.

For those who don't know what the Oceans Seven is, it is a marathon swimming challenge consisting of seven open water channel swims. Each swim is a solo and unassisted swim, where a swimmer can't use a wetsuit. The Oceans Seven was devised in 2008 as the swimming equivalent of the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge. It is comprised of the following swims:

• North Channel
• Cook Strait
• Molokai Channel
• English Channel
• Catalina Channel
• Tsugaru Straitt
• Strait of Gibraltar

O'Reilly's journey began eight years ago, when she was inspired to swim the Cook Strait by John Gatfield, her coach at the time, after learning of his successful crossing from the South Island to North Island in March 2004.

After training for the swim, O'Reilly completed the Cook Strait swimming from North to South at the age of 12 years old, taking 7hrs 19mins 56secs on her first attempt.

Since then, O'Reilly has completed some other marathon swims close to home which included Lake Taupo (2019), Foveaux Strait (2021) and a double crossing of Lake Taupo (2022) before tackling the next of the Oceans Seven. So it's has been in the past couple of years that O'Reilly has increased the focus on the other remaining six swims in the Oceans Seven.

The full list of O'Reilly's Ocean Seven results has been provided below for more details, but Tsugaru Strait (Japan) was the next swim completed on 5 July 2022. The crossing was from Honshu to Hokkaido in the northern part of Japan, with the strait connecting the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean. O'Reilly achieved the feat in 11hrs 37mins 43secs.

The following year, O'Reilly completed three successful crossings in the space of 33 days. First up, O'Reilly completed the English Channel from England to France in 9hrs 34mins. Later that month was the North Channel from Ireland to Scotland in 9hrs 57mins 15secs. To round out the trip, O'Reilly then swum from North to South in the Strait of Gibraltar in 6hrs 4mins.

In July this year, O'Reilly swam the Catalina Channel from the island to the mainland in 8hrs 56mins 51secs to achieve her penultimate challenge on her way to the Oceans Seven.

The last challenge to complete the feat was arguably the hardest of all, with the Molokai Channel between the Hawaiian Islands of Oahu and Molokai the longest and most unpredictable. O'Reilly attempted this crossing three times, with her first in November 2023 where she swam for 16.5hrs before being pulled from the water due to chronic fatigue. Incredibly, O'Reilly had been throwing up for over six hours and unable to consume any nutrition in that time before being removed from the water. On her second attempt, O'Reilly swam for two hours before the call was made that the weather was too rough and unsafe to continue the swim in. It was on her third attempt on 24 October 2024 that O'Reilly completed the Molokai Channel in 13hrs 18mins.

The Molokai Channel proved to be the most challenging, with O'Reilly having to combat jellyfish stinging her under the arms and having tentacles wrapped around her legs in addition to the largest distance. O'Reilly produced her most complete swim of the feat to achieve the Oceans Seven and become the youngest ever to do it.

After starting her journey because of her love for swimming and wanting to pursue her passion in a unique and challenging way, O'Reilly reflected on what it meant to her to be the youngest in history to achieve the feat.

"It means the world to me. I am so grateful for the opportunity to travel the world and do what I love. It is a very special feeling to be in a group of only 33 other people in the world who have completed this challenge."

Some of O'Reilly's favourite moments during these swims were when the sea life joined her for the journey.

"It's hard to pick one moment in particular, but the best moment is when any sea life accompanies me. During the Catalina Channel and the Strait of Gibraltar, I was joined by a pod of dolphins that stuck around for a while, swimming underneath and alongside me."

O'Reilly also wanted to recognise those who have supported her throughout the journey.

"I want to thank my parents who have been there for me since day one and have supported every single swim I've tried without a doubt in the world. Driving me to training at 4am and watching me swim up and down is quite the commitment. I'd also like to thank Philip Rush who has been there for every big swim, watching every stroke. He inspired me to keep swimming and never give up even when times got hard. The coaches at North Shore Swimming have also been so amazing in supporting me and coaching me for years."

Whilst O'Reilly doesn't have any plans for her next challenge at this stage, she does intend to keep swimming for North Shore and complete her studies as a paramedic.

It's an incredible achievement and on behalf of the whole swimming community we'd like to congratulate Caitlin O'Reilly, her coaches and her support team for completing the Oceans Seven.

If you're interested in following Caitlin's lead and give marathon swimming a go, you can learn more about how to get involved by checking out Philip Rush's instagram account @phil_rush_swimming

Alternatively, you can start by giving open water swimming a go by checking out our Open Water Calendar.

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Oceans Seven Results

Below is the full list of Caitlin O'Reilly's results across each of the swims to achieve this feat.

• Cook Strait - 7hrs 19mins 56secs (26km - 24 February 2017)
• Tsugaru Strait - 11hrs 37mins 43secs (30km - 5 July 2022)
• English Channel - 9hrs 34mins (33km - 9 August 2023)
• North Channel - 9hrs 57mins 15secs (36km - 24 August 2023)
• Strait of Gibraltar - 6hrs 4mins (16km - 11 September 2023)
• Catalina Channel - 8hrs 56mins 51secs (33km - 16 July 2024)
• Molokai Channel - 13hrs 18mins (42.5km - 24 October 2024)

To find all of Caitlin O'Reilly's marathon swim results and more, check out the Long Swims Database - click here to view