KEY STATS: 61 entries, 46 Finishers - Mamma Mia! Swim speeds at the bottom of this page!

An amazing Pioneer event on the Mamma Mia film famous island of Skopelos! Limited to 61 swimmers on the start line, the weather would throw a lot of challenges at both race organisers and swimmers - hot, sunny but very windy on two of the days! But with a lot of teamwork all round, 46 determined open water maestros got their Finisher droplets - and those that didn’t had an incredible experience anyway!

Unusually for Michael Dieckmann he was de-throned in to second place by Brazil’s much younger superstar swimmer Samir Barel who demonstrated a masterclass in open water swimming across a host of conditions. Frenchman Stephane Guisard, who competed in all three events in 2024, completed the Mens scratch podium and took the wetsuit honours. Just 55 seconds overall behind him, was the first female swimmer, Samir’s partner Carole Morelli, holding off Ceri Edwards return from #2 honours by just over 2 minutes only. In Women’s wetsuit category, Britain’s Rachel Carter would take the win, but by only a minute overall ahead of France’s Sophie Monjalet.

A very happy Simon Griffiths, founder of Outdoor Swimmer Magazine, came to Greece and after two failed attempts to get a Finisher droplet in Montenegro and Croatia, nailed it and went home with a big smile clenching his first droplet! Kamal Nasrollah and Becky Frankel both completed their FOURTH UltraSwim 33.3, and remained at the end of 2024 the two swimmers with the most Finisher medals in the event’s history to date. Julie Globus from the USA was awarded the Selkie robe endurance prize for being the ‘last’ Finisher, superbly finishing the challenge, and in more than double the time in the water than Samir. Dutchman Frans Jonker was given a special mention too at the prize-giving - he came with the idea of just taking on 22.2km, and went home a full 33.3 Finisher!

Day 3 of the event, traditionally the marathon swim day, started wit 35-40 knots of wind and big breaking waves right in front of the hotel. With no option to go anywhere by boat, organisers improvised and managed to get 2 separate 5km races done, in two different locations - a long day for everyone, and no actual straight marathon swim this event - but 33.3km overall was still achieved. Great effort everyone!