Academic completes dangerous open-water swim route

ISTANBUL

An academic of a Turkish university has swum for 15 hours in the 34-kilometer Catalina Channel, which stretches between Santa Catalina Island and Los Angeles in the United States.

Raha Akhavan Tabatabaei, an academic from Sabancı University, successfully reached her goal by swimming the track, known as the world’s one of the most dangerous open-water swim routes.

The academic became the first Iranian woman to complete the course where the temperature of the water drops to very low levels and the unexpected currents and waves push swimmers hard.

“I have been preparing for this track for two years. I swam on the lines of Istanbul’s Anatolian side. I did not miss my sea training even when it snowed in winter,” she said, adding that she made her first long swimming attempts in the Bosphorus.

“Swimming has become my second occupation, besides my main profession as an academic,” she noted.

Crossing the English Channel with the “Out of Our Confortzone” group consisting of Emre Develi, Deniz Kayadelen and Darren Watson in 2019, Tabatabaei became the first Iranian woman to swim the 34-kilometer course.

Before this challenging experience, the group had collected donations for the Association for Supporting Contemporary Life (ÇYDD) and provided scholarships to 500 students.