Norwegian swimmer Eirik Ravnan from Raufoss, who recently won the national championships in the 400-meter medley, logged another accomplishment by swimming back and forth over the country’s largest lake on Tuesday and breaking a 78-year-old record in the process.
Ravnan, who’s been majoring in mechanical engineering at prestigious Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, was taking part in a fundraising effort for the pediatrics ward at the local hospital in Gjøvik. The goal for the 21 swimmers taking part was to swim across Lake Mjøsa, a distance of 2.2 kilometers, as quickly as possible.
Norwegian Broadcasting(NRK) reported that Ravnan managed to cross the still-chilly lake that was frozen just a few months ago in an “incredible” 27 minutes and seven seconds. That broke the record for a cross-lake swim set back in 1934.
And then Ravnan swam back again, from Mengshoel to Gjøvik, with a total time of just 54 minutes and 26 seconds. Ravnan called it a “satisfactory training session” and said he already planned to swim the lake again next year, faster.
“I’m a Raufoss boy who’s grown up near Mjøsa, so I need to make sure the record is held locally,” he said.
Views and News staff