Swimming Across the Messina Strait (Sicily)

Swimming is a great leisure activity, with a low environmental footprint, and it is really useful for physical and mental health improvement. On 13 September 2025, as an ambassador of the EU4Ocean Campaign and as a passionate diver, marine biologist, EMSEA educator and FIN Athlete, Martina Gaglioti joined an event organised by the Swimprove team. A group of 30 selected athletes from all the Italian regions gathered in Villa San Giovanni (RC, Calabria) to challenge themselves: crossing one of the most iconic places of the Mediterranean Sea, testing their swimming skills and resistance against the legendary currents, depicted also in the ancient myth of Scilla and Cariddi. The distance to cross the Strait from the starting point located in Punta Faro on the Sicily shore toward the arrival area in Cannitello, along the Calabrian shores, was around 3,5 km. Almost all the athletes succeeded in the challenge, completing the swimming race in less than one hour. 

Beside the sport activity, it has also been a great occasion to disseminate some information on the oceanographic conditions of the area and the reason why this place is known as the heaven of zoologists since early ‘800. 

Nowadays, the technologies available allow us to collect data even whilst we are performing our daily training session. With this idea in mind, Martina suggested to some of the race participants to share their training watches graphs, to gather plots and data and have an idea of the sea surface temperature conditions during the event. This was a way to engage them in citizen science and collect information relevant for data sharing. 

Looking forward to many other similar contributions in the editions ahead of the Messina Strait swimming race and similar initiatives!