Michael Jennings

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Michael Jennings, author of Believe It Or Not

Open Water Swimming Career

He completed two English Channel crossings: a France-to-England solo swim in 1960 and an England-to-France solo swim in 1966.
- On 1 August 1960, he completed a 33.8 km crossing of the English Channel from France to England in 13 hours 31 minutes.
- On 21 August 1966, he completed a 33.8 km crossing of the English Channel from England to France in 13 hours 2 minutes.
He wrote a book called Believe It Or Not to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his first English Channel crossing. The book proceeds are in support of the Ellenor Lions Hospices. He has currently sold about 1,600 books, giving Hospices £12,000 in November.
He served as one of the Channel Swimming Association observers for the unprecedented 49-day 560 km The Long Swim by Lewis Pugh that started on 17 July 2018.

He is a member of The Dover Beach Crew together with Freda Streeter, Irene Wakeham, Barrie Wakeham, Kevin Murphy, Nick Adams, Michelle Topatalo, Tanya Harding, Mike Ball, John Thorpe and other volunteers who won the inaugural Service to Marathon Swimming Award in 2013 given by the Marathon Swimmers Forum. He regularly helps run training sessions in Dover harbour for open water swimmers who challenge themselves to solo and relay crossings of the English Channel.