Over 11,000 People Attend This Year’s Balaton Cross Swimming

More than last year, 11,000 people took part in the 42nd Lidl Balaton Cross Swimming between Révfülöp (northern shore) and Balatonboglár (southern shore) on Sunday. The event was postponed for a day due to bad weather, writes Világgazdaság.

Early on Sunday morning the conditions were perfect, but later the wind picked up, requiring increased attention from swimmers and organizers alike. Around 12 p.m., the start had to be suspended for about an hour to ensure the safety of swimmers. The water temperature of Lake Balaton was around 26-27 degrees Celsius.

Some 150 sailing boats formed a floating corridor, allowing participants to swim to the southern shore, while those who were tired could hold on or even climb out to rest. Alongside the 150 sailing boats,

• three hospital boats,
• motorboats and
• doctors,
• health professionals,
• lifeguards,
• water police
• and hundreds of organizers

ensured the safety of the participants of the 42nd Lidl Balaton Cross Swimming.

The participants could choose from three trials: most of them completed the classic 5.2-kilometer distance, starting from Révfülöp and swimming to Balatonboglár. Those who thought this was too much, entered the 2.6 kilometer half distance. In addition to swimming, every year an increasing number of people sign up for the Balaton Cross Swimming, and complete the 5.2 km distance between the north and south shores on SUP.

Participants came from more than 1,100 municipalities in Hungary and 51 countries.

Many of them said at the start that this was the first time they had done it. There were even some women who had last swam in 1986 and wanted to prove to themselves that they could do it again after 38 years. Béla Gurbán, a 70-year-old pensioner from Budakeszi (near Budapest), who has not missed a single Balaton swim since 1979, was also in the field, completing the 5.2 km race for the 42nd time this year.

The majority of the participants were men (60-40%), but more women (53%) entered the half-distance swim. The oldest starter was an 84-year-old gentleman, while almost one in ten swimmers was under 18, including many primary school children.

In total, over 235,000 swimmers have crossed Lake Balaton since 1979.

The average swimming time for recreational athletes is 2 hours 50 minutes. The men’s record has been held since 2020 by Olympic silver medalist Kristóf Rasovszky with a time of 57 minutes. The best female time was swum by Éva Risztov in 2016. The London Olympic champion completed the distance between Révfülöp and Balatonboglár in 60 minutes and 58 seconds.

As has become commonplace in recent years, there were some familiar names among the entrants. For example:

• Tibor Kapu, the astronaut candidate selected for the Hungarian to Orbit (Hunor) Program,
• Krisztián Steigervald, a generation researcher,
• and actors Ferenc Kozáry and Máté Járai.

Via Világgazdaság; Featured image via MTI/Vasvári Tamás