Strait of Messina crossing 2023
28 June 2023, the first Strongers feat: Valerio Nicolai swims the 3.5 km across the Strait of Messina. A symbolic crossing to carry lung cancer research beyond every border.
Swimming the Strait
On 28 June 2023 our president Valerio Nicolai swam across the Strait of Messina: the inaugural initiative of Strongers Social Club, a sporting challenge turned into a fundraiser for lung cancer research.
The year before, Valerio had come to see the Strait to understand what swimming its 3.5 km would mean. Two seas meeting, currents mixing warm and cold water, a strong and steady wind: the sheer scale of this natural phenomenon is intimidating, and the mere thought of facing it is frightening.
Valerio dived in all the same, and swam on behalf of everyone who donated to research through this feat.
From the briefing to the finish
Valerio before the crossing: the story and the reasons
The race course and the briefing
A few moments before the start
The swim
Relive every emotion with Valerio
The Strait from Torre Faro
The Strait
From Torre Faro to Cannitello
The route of the crossing: 3.54 km in 1 hour, 15 minutes and 3 seconds, from the tip of Torre Faro to the beach at Cannitello. Never a straight line: the current of the Strait pushes sideways and has to be compensated stroke after stroke.
- A · Torre Faro (Sicily), start at 10:23
- B · Cannitello (Calabria), finish at 11:38
Now it's your turn!
Give today and support lung cancer research.