Diego Lopez’ Marathon Swim Story

In today’s episode I spoke with Diego Lopez. He grew in the Canary Islands, where swimming is part of the culture. Diego shares with us how the Global Swimmer project was born.

Endeavoring to swim a major event on each of the seven continents in a single year presents many challenges – but maybe not the ones that you think!

In our conversation, Diego and I realized that while we’ve done a lot of the same swims, but we keep missing each other at the waters edge!

I hope you enjoy the story of Global Swimmer.

In this own words:

I am globally-minded entrepreneur, finance executive and marathon / ice swimmer.

Born and raised in the small Canary Islands in Spain, my curiosity about the world grew with time, and at age 39, I have lived in 8 different countries, swum or raced in 21 of them, and visited 82 in all 7 continents.

Every big project in my life has the word “global” in it – I have written a blog “Global Islander” since I moved to the Middle East in 2010; I have been known as the “Global Swimmer” for years now and I established my own consulting company called “Global SWF” in 2018. My new “Global” project will be unveiled in 2022.

In 2012 while in Hong Kong, I both ran and swam my first marathon, and I decided to stick with the ocean. I picked up my passion for the open waters and gained a new purpose too: being able to swim in an environment free of plastic waste. I have since then represented an NGO called Ocean Recovery Alliance.

In 2017 shortly after swimming Manhattan, I had a chat with Steven Munatones and decided to pursue the huge undertaking of swimming a major event in one of the seven continents in the following calendar year. We called this the “Continents Seven”, as opposed to Oceans Seven, and it was a life-changing experience.

At least two things came out of it: I became an ice swimmer (I had to, if I wanted to swim in Antarctica), and I authored a book – actually two of them, in English and Spanish – and started giving motivational talks.

I continue to be very competitive and a sucker for ticking boxes, but my mindset has slightly changed, and I now try to enjoy and appreciate my swims more, as well as spread my passion for the sport everywhere. As part of IISA USA’s new board, I am hoping to turn a lot of swimmers across the country into the ice soon!