Cameron Bellamy
Cameron Bellay is a South African from Cape Town who specialises in endurance events - open-water marathon swimming, rowing, cyling. He is best known for the 2019 swim from Barbados to St Lucia in the Caribbean, which is the longest recorded ocean channel swim, covering the 151.7 km (94 miles) in 56 hours and 36 minutes.
The 37-year-old South African set out from St Peters Bay in Barbados at 8.20 on Saturday morning, swimming in flat seas with gentle swells but hot conditions, reaching St Lucia just before 5 p.m. local time on Sunday to be met by the country's prime minister Allen Chastanet.
Bellamy became only the 11th person (and the first from Africa) to complete the Oceans 7, open water swimming’s version of climbing the 7 highest mountains in the world. The Oceans 7 consists of the 7 toughest channel swims around the world (including New Zealand’s Cook Strait, Japan’s Tsugaru Strait, Hawaii’s Molokai Channel, The North Channel between Scotland, Ireland, California’s Catalina Channel, The Strait of Gibraltar, and The English Channel).
He graduated from Rhodes University in Grahamstown and he also obtained a Masters's degree in International Economics and Finance in 2006.
from the University of Queensland.
He is an International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fam Honor Swimmer.
Today Cameron trains in the San Francisco Bay with the South End Rowing Club
2018 World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year Nomination
He was nominated for the 2018 World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year by the World Open Water Swimming Association:
Cameron Bellamy has cycled and rowed long distances over the course of his athletic career, setting two Guinness World Records. He only recently caught the open water swimming bug. But once Bellamy became immersed in the open water world, he was all-in and went all-out as is his innate modus operandi. He started from scratch and subsequently crossed the English Channel (16 hours 29 minutes), Strait of Gibraltar (4 hours 1 minute), Catalina Channel (11 hours 54 minutes), North Channel (12 hours 22 minutes), Molokai Channel (16 hours 1 minute), Cook Strait (12 hours 44 minutes) and Tsugaru Channel (11 hours 6 minutes) to become the first South African to achieve the Oceans Seven. But the 46-year-old did not rest on his laurels and later attempted a 96 km circumnavigation swim around Barbados, swimming for over 26 hours and 66 km before he aborted the swim. For creating a successful charitable organization called the Ubunye Challenge that raises funds for sustainable development in the poorest areas of Africa through sports challenges, for returning to Japan to tackle the Tsugaru Channel in order to achieve the Oceans Seven after an initial DNF, and for planning a second 96 km circumnavigation swim around Barbados while helping the local Caribbean swimming community and working in Silicon Valley, Cameron Bellamy of South Africa is a worthy nominee for the 2018 World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year.
Cameron Bellamy honoured by the Guinness World Records for his 40 hour 46 minute circumnavigation swim around Barbados on his second attempt.
Between 13 and 25 December 2019, Bellamy, along with five other men, (Fiann Paul, Andrew Towne, Colin O'Brady, Jamie Douglas-Hamilton, and John Peterson) rowed across the Drake Passage in a 29 ft (8.8 m) vessel, enduring freezing temperatures, rain, snow, and waves up to 30 ft (9.1 m) in height. The rowers worked in 90-minute shifts for 24 hours a day, travelling 665 mi (1,070 km).
