The Welsh swimmer has faced many bouts of illness throughout his open-water swimming career due to the quality of water around the world and says he must prepare carefully when heading into a challenge of this scale.
“I have to take all sorts of precautions, like a shot of Pepto-Bismol before and after,” he said.
“Precautionary antibiotics, I’ve got to clean my face and hands immediately after getting out of the water before touching anything.”
All to ensure he prevents picking up an illness from bacteria in the water, such as E. coli which is commonly caused by sewage in the water.
He also monitored his hydration throughout the challenge and had water quality monitors tracking the data in real-time during his three-lake swim.
Despite training in Italy, he was not afraid to tackle the temperature difference of the waters in the UK.
“I was originally planning on doing it without a wetsuit,” he said.
“I was so naive and complacent thinking that I could do it in skins. I’m quite a low body fat percentage because I’m training so much.
“I’m not really built for enduring really cold waters. So yeah, I wore a wetsuit and I still struggled a little bit with it.”
Pardoe broke the record for the fastest crossing of Loch Lomond, going end to end in seven hours and 46 minutes – the previous record was held by James Leitch in his 2012 men’s record of nine hours and 16 minutes.
The Welshman is also the first person to swim the three biggest lakes in England, Scotland and Wales and now has his target set on challenging for a medal in the Los Angeles Olympics.
“I’m doing these swims and challenges, but they’re all building up to the LA Olympics [10km Open Water Swim] and I never want to do a challenge that would take away from preparing for that,” Pardoe explained.
He says he “always learns something from every swim” and plans to take part in two major swims in 2026.
“I’ve already started planning an even bigger one and this will be the biggest swim that I’ll ever do probably in my entire life,” he added.
“It’s considered the crown jewel of all the water swimming. It’s the longest ever swim unassisted in neutral waters and the record is 168km.
“That’s going to be enormous and I can do it. It’s a pretty cool achievement to be at one point in your life someone who swam the furthest possible.”
He also plans to beat the record swim for the Manhattan Island, a 45.9km circumnavigation of the island, famous for its New York City skyscrapers, a record previously held by Andy Donaldson, but recently broken by David Olvera on 26 June.
Pardoe’s next challenge will be to represent Wales in a relay swim down the River Thames on 1 September, also to raise money for Surfers Against Sewage.
