Ross Edgley

Between June and November 2018, Edgley completed a 157-day 1,792 miles (2,884 km) swim around Britain. Aided by a team of experts which monitored the tides and his health in his 16 metres (52 ft) support boat Hectate, he typically swam for six hours, rested for six hours, and swimming another six hours etc. He typically consumed around 15,000 calories a day, eating pizza, pasta, noodles, Shepherd's pie, porridge, biscuits, natural yoghurt, peanut butter, coconut oil, bananas and other fruits and vegetables and guzzling green shakes before every swim. By mid October he had consumed 554 bananas. The gruelling swim took its toll on his body, disintegrating his tongue through the eroding effect of the salt, giving him "Rhino Neck" from the effect of the wetsuit rubbing, and his feet entirely losing their arches and turning a deep purple and yellow. The team treated him with Sudocrem, Vaseline, plasters, bin bags and duct tape.

Edgley's journey was documented as a weekly internet series, "Ross Edgley's Great British Swim", produced by Red Bull TV. After completing the swim in Margate on 4 November 2018, the World Open Water Swimming Association announced it as the World Swim of the Year 2018 and it became officially recognised as "The World's Longest Staged Sea Swim." He also broke several other records during the swim, breaking Benoît Lecomte's Longest Staged Sea Swim record of 73 days, set in the Atlantic Ocean in 1998, by mid August, and becoming the first person to swim the 900 miles (1,400 km) from Land's End to John o' Groats in 62 days. Talking about his historic swim he said, "It's my hope that people remember the Great British Swim as an example or experiment in both mental and physical fortitude."

In May 2018, Edgley published The World's Fittest Book, which combines the teachings, tips and tricks of Olympic champions, world record holders and celebrated military personnel and knowledge he had acquired from extensive travelling around the world. It took over 10 years to research and write, with Edgley visiting over 100 countries and documenting a wide range of phenomenon from ice-cold waterfall meditation by the Yamabushi monks in Japan to ultra marathon running in the Namibian wilderness. The book became a Sunday Times Bestseller.

Edgley was born into a sporting family in Grantham, Lincolnshire. His father was a tennis coach, his mother was a sprinter and his grand parents were marathon runners and in the military. He graduated from Loughborough University's School of Sport and Exercise Science. He was listed in the World's 50 Fittest Men of 2016 by Askmen.com.

Commencing at midnight on 22 January 2016, Edgley began a marathon (26.2 miles (42.2 km)) around the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire, pulling a 1,400 kilograms (3,100 lb) Mini Countryman car. The event was dubbed "The World's Strongest Marathon". As part of his training for the event he went on a special 6,000 calorie plus daily diet and had already done a 16 miles (26 km) pull with the Mini during training. He completed the marathon endeavour in 19 hours, 36 minutes and 43 seconds. The marathon raised money for the Teenage Cancer Trust, Children With Cancer, Sports Aid and United Through Sport.

At 9am on 22 April 2016, Edgley began his "World’s Longest Rope Climb" conquest at Pippingford Park in the Ashdown Forest of Sussex, in which he completed a rope climb of 8,848 metres (29,029 ft), the exact height of Mount Everest, in 19 hours and 54 minutes. The money raised went to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Ross Edgley (born 13 October 1985) is a British extreme athlete, sports scientist and writer, adventurer and fitness trainer. A leading expert and writer on mental fortitude, physical resilience and work capacity, in 2018 he published "The World's Fittest Book", and became the first person in history to swim all the way around Great Britain, completing it in 157 days.