Neil Gilson, a former international athlete from Devon, has become the first person to swim the ten largest lakes in Switzerland, covering about 230 miles (370km) in total. He completed the final leg on Wednesday, swimming the 45-mile length of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) in just over 22 hours.
Gilson, a father of three, staggered out of the water rather than springing, which was no surprise given the effort. His 12-year-old daughter Lily and 10-year-old son Jack were in the lake waiting for him as he approached the finish, joining him for the final stretch.
"They swam the last 200m with me," Gilson said. "There were tears in my goggles. For the whole challenge, I was envisioning that moment. It kept me going through some difficult times – lovely."
The 40-year-old was once ranked second in Britain for the 1500-metre freestyle. After retiring from race swimming, he turned to endurance challenges. In 2024, he swam across Lac Léman in 22 hours and nine minutes, a world record, but he decided to push further and tackle all ten lakes.
Gilson prepared with countless hours in a leisure centre pool, the sea off the north Devon coast, and the gym. There were setbacks along the way. He admits that a swim of about 40 miles in Lake Maggiore this summer nearly broke him. The water was colder than expected, forcing him to swim faster to keep his core temperature up, which burned more energy than planned. He had "nothing left" for the final miles.
Lake Thun also proved unexpectedly difficult as the pressure of completing the challenge and the physical toll caught up with him. After getting out, he said: "My arms don't like me and I feel shattered."
Gilson found lake swimming more demanding than the sea. "They're more unpredictable. You can get some really choppy conditions because of the wind and you can hit walls of cold water."
He started the Léman swim on Tuesday morning and finished on Wednesday lunchtime. He admitted that 18 hours in, he considered giving up. "It was so tough in the night – the current was strong. I felt really close to stopping but what kept me going was my family waiting there."
His support team, travelling in a boat alongside him, helped by giving him coffee and saying "the right things".
Gilson narrowly missed beating his own world record for Léman, but he is confident that Guinness World Records will recognise him as the first person to complete what has been called the Legend of the Lakes challenge. He expects other ultra-swimmers may try to do it faster in future.
Beyond the physical feat, Gilson is raising awareness for Pans and Pandas, a neuropsychiatric condition that affected his son Jack when he was 18 months old. People with Pans or Pandas experience symptoms ranging from mental health issues to changes in behaviour and movement difficulties.
Jack was diagnosed after catching tonsillitis. "He went to bed a happy, healthy little boy, and woke up as someone we didn't recognise, gripped by aggression, OCD, tics and intense fear; he refused to eat, wouldn't leave the house or even speak. It was terrifying," Gilson said.
Jack is doing well, as shown by joining his father for the final stretch of the swim. Gilson said, "The challenge has always been about more than swimming. Every lake, every kilometre and every difficult moment has been about raising awareness of Pans and Pandas. It's a condition that isn't rare but is rarely diagnosed. Raising awareness of it means more than anything."
Devon Man Becomes to Swim Switzerland’s Ten Largest Lakes