Swimming Marathon ITALY-TUNISIA

Nejib Belhedi completing the Camel Swim, an Iron Swim in Tunisia, escorted by the ship Pirate

The Swimming Marathon Italy-Tunisia is a 141 km unprecedented attempt to swim from the island of Lampedusa, Italy to the Mahdia coastline of Tunisia. The cross-border swim and example of the Speedo Diplomacy will be attempted in September 2019 by Nejib Belhedi at the age of 67.

Nejib Belhedi

Nejib Ben Messaoud Belhedi (born in Sfax, Tunisia on 26 July 1952) is a 67-year-old marathon swimmer from Tunisia. The Lt. Colonel in the Tunisian Army won the 2011 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year award, was selected as the 2016 World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year for his Iron Swim challenges in towing boats by objectives reaching a progressively higher weight peak of 1014 Tons. He is an icy swimmer and has completed swims where the temperature varied between 1-5C° from the Bering Strait in 2013 to Tunisian dams during the winter in 2013, 2017, and 2018.

He is a Channel Swimming Association representative and promoter for the Dialog Across the Seas. He is the 1400K Swim Across Tunisia accomplisher in 2011-2012. He is the namesake of the Belhedi Trophy awarded by the Channel Swimming Association and hosted the 2017 Global Open Water Swimming Conference and WOWSA Awards in the Bizerta Resort in Tunisia on 12-15 September 2017.