Ross Edgley completes first-ever swim around Iceland’s entire coastline

British endurance athlete Ross Edgley has etched his name into the history books as he has become the first man to ever swim around Iceland.

The 39-year-old Cheshire swimmer finished 1,000 miles (16909km) of Iceland coastline on September 8, 2025.

After returning to his starting point of Reykjavik after four years, the crew welcomed him with celebratory spray champagne and a drink from a Viking horn.

This challenge was marked as his most ambitious endavour so far and it was a tremendous ordeal of human strength that had taken nearly four months to complete.

The extreme environments that Edgley was exposed to are freezing waters as low as 3°C, giant waves, and killer whales.

The physical burden was also tremendous. He had gross wetsuit chafing and portions of his tongue had been lost through continuous contact with saltwater.

Edgley also had a calorie intake of 10,000 to 15,000 calories per day in order to maintain the effort which entailed six hours of swimming and six hours of rest on a support yacht.

The swim was a scientific expedition in addition to the athletic accomplishment.

Edgley was in cooperation with the University of Iceland and collected daily environmental DNA (eDNA) samples for the study of biodiversity and microplastic pollution in coastal regions of Iceland.