The Swimmer
On a clear, sunny Tuesday afternoon, last August, Andreas Fath climbed out of a river in Paducah, Ky. A small crowd was on hand to witness his setting a new world record. This man had just finished swimming the entire length of the Tennessee River — 1,049 kilometers (652 miles). And he did it in just 34 days!
The 52-year-old man had taken on this Herculean swim for science. A chemist from Hochshule Furtwangen University in Germany’s Black Forest, Fath’s month-long swim was part publicity stunt and part ongoing science. His primary goal was not to get his name into Guinness World Records. What really drove this aquatic trek was a desire to bring attention to water pollution.