The Lighthouse Swim has firmly established itself in Kiel's event calendar. For Saturday, July 8, 2023, around 200 athletes have registered to take on the sporting challenge and at the same time set an example for the protection of the oceans. In the spirit of our city partnership between Kiel and San Francisco and marine conservation, our partner projects Lighthouse Swim Kiel and Lighthouse Swim San Francisco, the CINEMARE Ocean Film Festival and the International Ocean Film Festival San Francisco are impressively united in one event. 

The event kicked off the evening before with the screening of "Cold Refuge" by Judy Irving. Together with the CINEMARE Marine Film Festival, we presented this moving film about open water swimming in the Metro Kino.  

The course of the big day 

Early on Saturday morning, the final preparations were made for a smooth start in the Olympic port of Schilksee. Under excellent weather conditions, the starting signal was given punctually at 10 am for the almost 250 swimmers and volunteer paddlers, who could choose between a medium distance (4 km) and a long distance (14 km). The middle-distance swimmers swam on the so-called beach track along the cliffs to Falckenstein beach. The 14 km long Fjord Track led almost 30 brave swimmers and paddlers further along the eastern shore and from there back to the western shore, where the finish line was located at the sailing camp. The fairway on the Kiel Fjord was closed for around 1 hour for this.  

At the Kiellinie, spectators, family members, the general public and, of course, our swimmers were catered for and entertained. Fans were able to follow the swimmers in a live stream on a large screen on the Kiellinie, accompanied by expert commentary from sports expert Bernd Lange and NDR presenter Lars Grüning. A supporting program with live music and films on the topics of town twinning and marine conservation entertained the audience between the breaks in the presentation blocks. Regional food and drink trucks provided refreshments and refreshments.  

At the end of this successful day, the swimmers were honored in a finisher ceremony in the afternoon and particularly outstanding performances were highlighted.  

The fastest swimmer on the beach track with a time of 1:04 h was 15-year-old Levke Krüger, who was also the first female participant to cross the finish line last year. Tim Teupke, 17, was the fastest swimmer to cross the finish line just under a minute earlier. On the fjord track, 21-year-old Anja Sperling was the fastest swimmer with an incredible time of 3:30 hours, closely followed by the fastest 60-year-old swimmer, Martin Schmidt, with a time of 3:35 hours.  

What great performances by the athletes! 

Photo Credits: Kiel Marketing e.V., Karen Wiesensee