Dedication, effort and passion drove 70 athletes to take part in Portugal’s first open water swimming competition. It was at Praia do Carvalho that the 10-kilometre sea race began on August 24, bringing together sports enthusiasts of nine nationalities, including German, Belarusian, Austrian, Swiss, Swedish and Finnish, as well as Portuguese from all over the country.
The route passed through Vale de Centeanes and Carvoeiro beaches and ended at Caneiros beach in Ferragudo, with the Angolan Pedro Miguel Pinotes, a Sporting Clube de Portugal swimmer, winning and Miguel Arrobas, a candidate for the Portuguese Swimming Federation, coming second. There were three food stations, where hydration and food products were distributed, to support the athletes. The Swim Party was “a true celebration of unity, overcoming and love for nature,” according to organiser and founder Mariana Santos, a native of Carvoeiro and a former athlete of Portinado, the Portimão Swimming Association.
The idea came to her after taking part in UltraSwim 33.3, a similar event held in Croatia in May. To make it inclusive and encourage camaraderie, she created two options: swim a 10-kilometre course individually or take part in a relay race. This section, with eight teams of three competing, “fostered a spirit of unity among the participants,” all experienced at different levels. The fastest finished the race in two and a half hours and the last in around five hours.
Mariana had the help and support of her UltraSwim 33.3 roommate and now friend Svetlana Zadedyurina. The Belarusian co-organiser, responsible for creating the website, praised “the voluntary commitment and passion of everyone involved who made the Swim Party possible”. The Algarve native has always had a close connection with the beach and the sea, and at the age of six she took up swimming, becoming the Algarve’s first national champion at just 13. At the time, winning “broke a lot of psychological barriers for me,” commented the swimmer, who is currently president of the Algarve Swimming Association (ANALGARVE), recalling that she later went on to represent Portugal in Greece.
At the age of 17, she moved to Lisbon and joined the Sporting team. This was followed by a period of study, with a degree in Communication Design from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon. Mariana subsequently completed two master’s degrees, one in Digital Media at Hyper Island University, in Sweden, and the other in Entrepreneurial Journalism, at Stanford, in the United States. But she didn’t stop there. She recently completed a postgraduate course in the Leadership Programme at Harvard, in the USA.
She has a broad academic and professional career working in several countries, such as Germany, Sweden and England, and later in the United States and Latin America, where she developed the landmark project “Chicas Poderosas,” which focused on the empowerment of women in journalism in 18 countries. The Covid-19 pandemic brought her back to Portugal where, inevitably, she returned to her favourite activity: swimming in the sea, a passion that never went away. In 2014, she took part in the Masters World Championships in Quebec, Canada, a time when she trained every day at 5am, accompanied by a team in Costa Rica.
“Swimming isn’t just a physical sport, it’s directly related to psychological and mental health,” she noted, emphasising that “it requires concentration, breath control and individual meditation. The time we’re swimming is time we’re dedicating to ourselves.”
Promoting a sport of camaraderie in which fun is combined with coping with trauma is Mariana’s focus. She sees swimming as “a way of expanding the heart.” The swimmer believes that “while we feel enveloped by the sea, we reflect on how we want to be well and surrounded by people with positive energy that uplifts us.” It’s a sport where athletes challenge their limits and put their fears to the test. Mariana’s fears were swimming in deep water where she couldn’t see the bottom and the possibility of sharks. “The aim is to be calm in an environment that can be challenging,” she underlined.
The concern between colleagues and the team spirit, despite being an individual competition, as well as the support from back-up members are other positive aspects of this competition. “We all face our obstacles together,” revealed the organiser. Mariana would like to start promoting open water swimming even more in Carvoeiro because, as a local, she knows “the whole coastline and would be an excellent guide for swimmers”. “We always swim with buoys that identify us, but it’s dangerous because of the large number of boats from maritime tourism companies that visit the caves every day,” she warned, calling for awareness of this problem.
“It’s important to respect swimmers at sea. Open water swimming could become a Carvoeiro sport if the tourist companies’ boats allowed it. But there needs to be mutual respect and collaboration,” she suggested with the ambition to “change the reality of the region”. Although the Swim Party took place on one day this year, the idea is that it will be held over four days, that more places will open up and that participants will stay in 5-star hotels across the Algarve, thus promoting sports tourism.
At the moment, if you want to prepare for next year’s competition or just want to swim in open water, you can ask to join the Whatsapp group ‘ÁGUAS ABERTAS’, run by Mariana Santos, and sign up to the website, https://swimparty10km.com/, which offers a newsletter with information about the 2025 event.
Swim Party 2024 was supported by Lagoa Town Council, the Maritime Police, Portimão Harbour Commander, Lagoa and Portimão Fire Brigade, Algarve Marines, Algarve Tourism Region, Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth, Precision Fuel & Hydration, Ultra-Swim 33. 3, Shark Rebellion, Outdoor Swimmer, Multicrono, speaker Nuno Cadete, Rei das Praias restaurant, Herdade do Sobroso, Brotherootz, Benagil Kayaking, Eliarte, Vela Solidária and Intermarché do Carvoeiro.
At the end of the race, the participants had lunch at Rei das Praias, with Alentejo wine from Herdade do Sobroso to accompany them. Personalised prizes were provided by Porches Pottery, and the delicious cake specially created for the event was made by Pastelaria Delícias de Portimão, while ANIMAME Algarve provided accommodation for some of the swimmers.
By Beatriz Maio
