Prabhat Koli World's Youngest Oceans Seven Swimmer

Prabhat Koli is now the world’s youngest Oceans Seven swimmer in an exclusive club of just 22 members. 

- B. B. NAYAK

He’s been there and done it again. But this time, with a giant leap which many have dreamed of achieving but at which very few have succeeded. For over a decade and-a-half, becoming the youngest athlete in the world to complete the Oceans Seven Challenge.

On 1 March, India’s leading open-water, long-distance swimmer, Prabhat Koli (23), etched yet another milestone in his illustrious swimming career spanning 15 years. He swam across Cook Strait from the South Island to the North Island in New Zealand on 1 March and became the youngest athlete in the world to complete the Oceans Seven Challenge.

This article makes it sound easy, but it was anything but that. Prabhat clocked 8 hours and 41 minutes to cross the 28 km distance amid rough weather in 15-degree temperature. It was not the furthest distance he has covered in his swims, but this one carried the burden of an earlier failure. He had attempted it in 2020 during the pandemic. High winds and turbulent water caused his coach Minty-Gravett to abort the swim just short of his goal, after struggling for 8 hours 24 minutes. This time, Prabhat did not fail.

When he climbed the rocks at the end, Prabhat became the 22nd swimmer in the world to accomplish the rare distinction. The Oceans Seven Challenge is considered an ultimate open-water swimming expedition which is equivalent to the Seven Summit Mountaineering Challenge. Out of the 22 people that have so far completed it, Prabhat has emerged as only the second Asian next to Pune’s Rohan More who achieved this feat in 2018. But More was 32.