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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.<\/p>\n
“I have to take all sorts of precautions, like a shot of Pepto-Bismol before and after,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Precautionary antibiotics, I’ve got to clean my face and hands immediately after getting out of the water before touching anything.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He also monitored his hydration throughout the challenge and had water quality monitors tracking the data in real-time during his three-lake swim.<\/p>\n
Despite training in Italy, he was not afraid to tackle the temperature difference of the waters in the UK.<\/p>\n
“I was originally planning on doing it without a wetsuit,” he said.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
He says he “always learns something from every swim” and plans to take part in two major swims in 2026.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n