Veteran island swimmer secures Guinness World Record success

Friday 16 February 2018

A much-loved island swimming teacher has officially been deemed the world’s oldest person to complete a two-way English Channel swim, and the only person in history to have crossed the Channel five times over five separate decades.

Sally Minty-Gravett MBE completed the most recent record-setting swim in 2016, but only recently officially gained Guinness accreditation for her achievement, which was set under the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation.

It is now listed as an official record on the Guinness World Records website.

Sally’s swim from Dover to Calais and back, which took place on the 29 and 30 August, covered more than 42 miles and took her 36 hours 26 minutes – just over 15 hours on the way there, and around 21 hours on the way back. After setting off at 08:44, she finished up the next day at 21:10.

Video: Sally talks about her love of the sea. (Visit Jersey/The Observatory)

The then 59-year-old took on the sea after intensive training, including swimming around the island twice. Her efforts also saw her raise more than £9,000 for the RNLI and Jersey Cheshire Home.

At the time, she described it as one of her biggest ever challenges.

She is one of only a handful of people in the world to have achieved the feat. Another of those is fellow islander and Churchill Award winner, Wendy Trehiou, who took 39 hours and 9 minutes to accomplish it in August 2013.

Sally is also the only person in history – male or female – to have completed a Channel swim five separate times over five decades. Her first occurred back in August 1975 when she was aged just 18. She then made the journey again in September 1985, September 1992, September 2005 and July 2013.

It’s another feather in the (swimming) cap of the veteran swimmer. She was honoured by the Queen with an MBE in May 2017, before being decorated with the Churchill Award for Courage at a special reception hosted by the Bailiff in July. She became one of fewer than 10 recipients to receive the award since it started in 1965.

The Bailiff, Sir William Bailhache, praised Sally for having taken on what he described as a “formidable challenge.”

Video: Sally speaks about the honour.

“This award rightly acknowledges personal efforts and continues to demonstrate that the Island has a number of adventurers, who are prepared to go that extra distance both physically and mentally,” he said.