What my record 102-hour saltwater swim taught me about the ocean

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Noam Yaron, endurance swimmer and environmental campaigner: No other human being on the planet has ever done that before. The goal was to use that and raise awareness and connect people with nature and I think we successfully did it with this crazy adventure.

Robin Pomeroy, host, Radio Davos: Welcome to Radio Davos, the podcast from the World Economic Forum that looks at the biggest challenges and how we might solve them.

This week - how do you draw attention to the threats facing nature in the ocean? We meet a man who spent the best part of a week swimming across the Mediterranean.

Noam Yaron: We truly faced what all of those animals were facing: the pollution, plastic, noise, but also chemical pollution. We also faced those big ships that are going way too fast too often and could be deadly if you enter into collision with them.

Robin Pomeroy: Noam Yaron, a 28-year-old from Switzerland, spent five days and four nights enduring unimaginable conditions that tested his body and mind.

Noam Yaron: During those 102 hours, I connected with my soul, my brain, my body to a level that I will probably never do again.

Robin Pomeroy: As well as raising awareness about nature, this feat of endurance might inspire the rest of us to strive for what might sometimes seem impossible.

Noam Yaron: We have extraordinary potential and we are just using a couple of percentage of what we are truly capable of.

Robin Pomeroy: Follow Radio Davos wherever you get your podcasts, or visit wef.ch/podcasts.

I’m Robin Pomeroy at the World Economic Forum, and with an amazing story of nature and endurance...

Noam Yaron: I think, we are just using so little because we are not used to use that instinct, that survival instinct, anymore.

Robin Pomeroy: This is Radio Davos

Robin Pomeroy: Welcome to Radio Davos.

This week's guest is someone who's done an enormous challenge. His name is Noam Yaron and he's an endurance swimmer. Noam, how are you?

Noam Yaron: Fine. Better, I would say.

Robin Pomeroy: How long has it been since you got out of the water on your massive swim that you're about to tell us about?

Noam Yaron: About one month now, so it's kind of insane to reminisce and go back to what happened, because a lot happened.

Robin Pomeroy: Tell us about this most recent thing, and then we'll go back and find out kind of the journey you went on to get here. What were you doing in the water for all this time?

Noam Yaron: So the goal was to swim from Calvi in Corsica island, up to Monaco. It's the length of the biggest marine protected area in the Mediterranean Sea called the Pelagos Sanctuary. And despite its name, it's not very much protected.

So the goal was to use this world record for the longest swim. Because what we thought were 180 kilometres at the time, transformed in being 191, spending five days and four nights without leaving the water, that was the only rule.

So I was just with my wetsuit, goggles, and cap, swimming as far as I could. And unfortunately, two kilometres away from the shore in Monaco, I had to go out from the water because of trouble breathing and also burns that I got from the salt with the friction in my westsuit.

So that was, I would say, the kind of signal for my body and brain saying, okay, that's the last breath that you could take. And my team got me out from the water.

And then I was in the hospital for nine days. It was the most painful experience of my life dealing with those 15 second-degree burns. So it's a lot of pain from taking care of those burns. I couldn't imagine me being in this position, being in the hospital.

I've done a lot different challenges in the past. Swimming Lake Geneva that is just next door, which is the biggest Alpine lake in Europe. That was my first challenge that I've done for nature. Raising awareness five years later with approximately 60 million people, which is equivalent of the population of France, swimming, doing what I love, and raising awareness for the Mediterranean Sea, the ocean, nature.

It is the greatest gift and challenge and I would say success of my life so far.

Robin Pomeroy: It's your second attempt to do this swim from Corsica to mainland Europe. It must be devastating, two kilometres away. I mean, you can see the shore at that point.

Noam Yaron: Completely, but I wouldn't say devastating.

Because when I got out from the water I was hallucinating. That's another thing that you should know, when you spend so much time in the water, approximately five days and four nights, starting at 48 hours, you can't really see what's happening. You start seeing things differently.

So for example the swimming line that I was swimming next to that was dragged behind the boat that was securing my swim I was seeing kind of a big snake or something, like all the objects are beginning to shift and looking like something else.

And the more you advance the swim and the days and nights without really sleeping, because we will talk about sleeping while swimming after that, you have to do everything in the water. So obviously your body and brain is getting tired.

And do those shortcuts and yeah without you knowing it you are seeing your world completely in another dimension, meaning I couldn't see the boat, I couldn't see my team. I could hear them recognise them so i was kind of myself but in another dimensions.

So, I was also seeing myself out of the water like looking at the surrounding and seeing beaches and weird forms like anime, for example, the Miyazaki movies. It was crazy, so nothing scary, but very weird.

So when I got out from the water, I didn't know exactly where we were, even if I saw the beach, that was the finish point and the finish line.

But I felt so happy about doing those 191 kilometres. No other human being on the planet has ever done that before in those conditions. Spending 102 hours and 24 minutes to be exact. In the water is something that I've never seen before for a swim.

Just for you to know, the reference in the Mediterranean Sea before was 142 kilometres, so we almost topped that by 50 kilometres, which is insane. And those longest swims in other parts of the world were approximately between 50 to 60 hours of swimming, I did 102, so that's insane.

So we are so happy, and I say we because it's a team effort, even if I was the the only one in the water. But it's amazing.

And the mission was doing that for nature, raising awareness. We said it, approximately 60 million people were reached by this campaign using sports for nature and even more in the media that, yeah, it got wild after I got back from the hospital and told really what happened in my story.

Robin Pomeroy: I've seen some video because you have this crew on the boat and they're sending out videos and you're talking to camera before you set off. And I know the thing you're taking about this kind of a line of inflatables that you follow, even at night and they light up as well. And I can just imagine, you know, someone who's at the beach and spends an hour or two maybe splashing around, when you get out, you feel the world spinning slightly around you.

You spent five days in there. And nights. I mean, a lot of people listening to this, they might run marathons or maybe triathlons. It's a very popular thing. Things that used to be considered quite extreme, Ironman, these kinds of things. You've gone way beyond that. I mean can you tell us, when you first get in, it's fine. When does it start to feel like a bad idea? How many hours into it do you think, this is really going to hurt?

Noam Yaron: My answer will be weird, but I would say never. And that's, I would the craziest thing.

We got a lot of challenges during the swim.

As you probably know, when you are in the high seas, so meaning you can't see land, because I would two-thirds of the swim you can't see land. So I swam so far that I couldn't see either the island or the mainland that I was trying to get to.

You have jellyfish everywhere that could get you a bad sting and also give you an anaphylactic shock if you are crossing a bunch of jellyfish at the same time.

You have currents that were definitely not in our favour during the swim.

You have waves, you have rain, wind. We experienced everything, but it was the only weather window of the summer. So we had five days and five nights of, I would say, approximately good weather. And we experienced a lot of things that weren't supposed to happen. So rain, wind, waves.

I would say for preparing such a challenge that nobody has done in these conditions before, you have to prepare yourself, your team, your logistics. And I would that's approximately 10% of what it takes to succeed. The 90% that's left is nature, current, weather. And all of that is not something you can control.

So you have to be okay with the fact that you are starting an adventure that costs a lot of money. Obviously you have find sponsors, et cetera, find a team, finance the team, all the logistics and you get in the water in Calvi and you're like, okay, now there is no going back.

It was the second attempt, obviously, but I knew that I'm not going to do a third one. So I was like, this is road to success or nothing.

And we came across many obstacles, but we faced them with, I would say kindness and understanding that we were doing that for nature. So being not ready to face what nature is offering us, even if it wasn't always positive, we were like, okay, let's go.

And every hour, every minute, every second was, yeah, a second less to spend in the water, I would, say. So we took those challenges and obstacles one after the other, and it got us 191 kilometres, 102 hours spent in this beautiful Mediterranean Sea that is one of the most polluted seas in the world.

And that's what is the mission behind it, to promote its, I would say, protection and also get the people to be connected with the Mediterranean Sea, to better take care of it.

Robin Pomeroy: I want to come to the mission in a moment, but everyone's going to be asking you the same questions. You're in the sea for five days without getting out. You have to do all the bodily functions. So you're eating, you are, whatever the word is, excreting, even, and I can imagine doing those things in the water. I can't imagine sleeping, because surely you can't go all that time without sleeping, what happens? Feel free to tell us how you do those other bodily things as well, but I'm particularly fascinated by the sleep.

Noam Yaron: So yeah, the rule was not getting out of the water. So obviously you eat, you drink, and you try to rinse your mouth from the salty water that is attacking your mouth.

My tongue was expanding because of the inflammation. So everything got worse hour by hour.

But every 60 minutes, I have between five to 10 minute breaks where I have a floatable device that is being placed in the water And I have all my feedings inside, so drinks, obviously more, I would say, electrolytes, water, things that could get you back up again.

Some caffeine every once in a while that I had to stop for a year to get more, I would, say effect from this caffeine to get me as sharp as possible, more in the mind than being awake, I'd say.

And then peeing is obviously peeing in the wetsuit is one of the best things, if it's not very sexy, to get your body temperature to be used with the liquid that comes out to get some degrees up when you pee in your wetsuit.

And then you have the pooping part. We try to design, with the wetsuit company, what we call the poop flap that is behind your butt and that you can just unzip and poop in the water.

Unfortunately I used the wet suit that is pretty old so it's the first I would say model that they created years and years ago and I found out that this one was the one to do this crossing because, once again, no equipment on earth is made to swim that far. It cracked under the arms, not because of bad quality of the product, but because the friction and the numbers of kilometres is so insane that even the material is not strong enough to keep that.

So I had to take out my wetsuit and put a new one in the water again. And it's easier than it sounds because the water just makes all the wear more easily. But to poop in the water, you have to unzip the wetsuits, put it down your poop and then put it back up again. It's very, I would say, time consuming first and not very practical. So definitely if I do another challenge, in less salty waters, I will have to think about ways to get that poop flap installed to avoid that.

And what truly I would, say changed the world and all the media and the internet is talking about it is how I sleep while swimming, because yes, it's possible. It's something that I tried to prepare years ago with a specialist in hypnosis.

So it's a hypnosis technique that just shut down a part of my brain while another one is still awake and being, I would say, very conscious about the lights that comes in my eyes closed because at night when I swim, I have a swimming line with a light. And when I swam next to it, I just closed my eyes and a part my brain is aware of how much light is coming. If it's a lot or more and more, it means that I'm drifting and I will hit the swimming line. And if it's getting darker it means I'm drifting in the dark Mediterranean Sea. And this part of my brain is just recalibrating constantly while the other part of the brain is kind of recovering.

So, we found out it's what we call at least, not sleep, we could call it very active recovery, because the number one side effect of fatigue, so lack of sleep, is hallucinations. And when I'm doing those sleep while swimming sections which could last 10 seconds, 1 minute, 10 minutes, it's crazy how we can get more and more sleep in. The more I'm doing that, the less hallucinations I have. So we proved in a way that it's really sleep and that I can recover sleeping while swimming.

Robin Pomeroy: So you hypnotise yourself to be in this semi-conscious state when your arms are still pulling through the water.

Noam Yaron: Exactly. And what is even more crazy, it's when you pass, I would say, those 48 hours of swimming, you start to hallucinate. And after three days and three nights, as I said, your entire world is completely different because of hallucinations. I couldn't see the boat. I was seeing myself in different places that I've never been before. Nothing scary once again, but it's very, very crazy to experience that because I've never seen those type of hallucinations before.

And the role of my team was to get me back, I would say, on Earth and in the water because I was seeing myself being out of the water and I think it's my brain trying to save me and understanding that the swim, the Mediterranean Sea, the water was something bad for my brain, my skin, because I was tired, I was suffering from this friction. Not easy to push through and go further.

And I'm not a super human. I'm just like you. I started swimming when I was young, eight years old, which is kind of late when you want to perform as a swimmer. And I did 10 years of swimming. I was pretty bad at it at first and then decided to use my ability, my ultra endurance where no one was really willing to go to push the boundary and do it for nature, once again.

Robin Pomeroy: So let's talk about the mission then that you mentioned. You're doing this for nature, for the biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea and the ocean in general. Why is that your mission?

Noam Yaron: I discovered the cause of salt water preservation and biodiversity protection, with my first ever challenge. It was my childhood dream, which was to cross Lake Geneva in length.

It's approximately 75 kilometres. At that time, in 2021, swimming pools were closed in Switzerland, where I live. At that I had no choice to train in the very cold water of Lake Geneva during the winter.

And in the winter, the water is crystal clear. So you can see what's happening below the surface. And I discovered for the first time while training in the cold water, that the bottom of the lake was full of trash. And I was like, how could I live for 20 years on the shore of this lake and not witnessing that before?

So I got very close to associations that are defending the lake on a daily basis on both the French and Swiss side. And I discovered that, at that time, 50 tonnes of plastic were ending in the lake every year.

So I was like, okay, so if there is a cause that I want to carry and raise awareness is truly water preservation and biodiversity protection.

So, I swam that lake and I broke the record by almost three hours, which was not expected at all. It took 19 hours, 53 minutes and 7 seconds to be exact and the previous record was 20 hours 39.

Robin Pomeroy: And it must be that there's an official route then that's been established. Where do you start and where do you finish?

Noam Yaron: Exactly, so we had to start in Le Château de Chillon, it's called, which is pretty famous here, and up to the Bains des Paquis in Geneva.

And it was a rough ride. We did a documentary with the swim, it got also a lot of attention, and the weather was so bad that we had to leave one boat behind, we had two boats, and because of the waves and the wind, so I had to swim next to a boat that wasn't made to be, I would say, a security boat for a swimmer.

And it was wild, we lost the GPS, so we didn't know exactly where and how far I was. And when I hit the shore, I found out that we broke the record and yeah, swam below the 20 hour mark, which was insane.

And it got a lot of attention on social media and also in regional medias. And I was like, okay, we have to do more. Do one challenge a year, try to expand the possibility and raise awareness on different parts of Switzerland.

And now we are aiming for the world with this longest swim for nature in the Mediterranean Sea. And I got out from the water two kilometres from the shore before Monaco so it's not going to be considered a crossing but a swim and we are now waiting for the Guinness World Records to tell us what's the real records. We could have multiple, the longest time spent in the water during a swim, and also the longest swim in terms of kilometres with a wetsuit in a current-neutral area.

So that's what we are waiting for, even if once again it's not what is the motivator of the swim. The goal was to use that and raise awareness for what we think is very important and connect people with nature and I think we successfully did it with this crazy adventure.

Robin Pomeroy: Tell us about the environment then, because if you've been to Lake Geneva, it looks pristine, the river Rhone flows out, absolutely crystal clear. You're saying you spent 19 hours crossing it with swimming goggles, I'm assuming, and you could see through, and there's all this trash in there. I think I read somewhere you saw a bus stop and shopping trolleys for some reason, where there's water, there're shopping trollies.

Noam Yaron: I don't know how it ended up here, but the problem is that plastic, which is one of the most common things we know as pollution, is entering the water. And when it's in the water, it sinks. So that's why you can't really see it at first. It goes down pretty quickly.

And then it breaks apart and becomes microplastics, as we all know. And that's really difficult to deal with and separate that from the water and extract it.

So the goal, and it's also an action that we organise for four years now, it's called the Water Lover Challenge, which the goal is to collect as many cigarette butts from the 20th to the 30th of September. Last year we collected one million cigarette butts, so it preserved from pollution about one billion litres of water, which is the equivalent of preserving the space and volume of 400 Olympic pools. So we truly wanted to implement something bigger and an action to this awareness campaigns that we are running through those sports for nature challenges.

So it's called the Water Lover Challenge. So it is very easy, you don't need to count the cigarette butts, you just have to wear gloves to protect your hands, have a PET bottle recycled that you have at home, and you just fill this bottle with cigarette butts. And after you finished, for example, half a litre of a bottle is about 250 cigarette butts You take a picture, upload it on our website, waterlover.org.

It's open worldwide. Even if you are not close to a water, the goal is to get rid of those cigarette butts that has nothing to do on the floor before they end up in the water, in the river, blown by the wind, by the rain whatsoever, and ends up in water. And that's, yeah, the most important thing.

And hopefully we will break a record again this year and collect more than 1 million in 10 days. We had 14 countries participating last year, and I think we will beat that record again. It's unfortunate, but it's obviously a good sign if we can collect more and avoid those cigarette butts ending up possibly in the water.

Robin Pomeroy: I want to come back to the environment in a minute, because I want you to tell me about the environment and the Mediterranean. But just on this, how active are you then involved in policy, because you can pick up as much trash as you want, but people shouldn't be throwing their cigarette butts there. Perhaps cigarette butts shouldn't made of plastic. Are you also involved in trying to get things like that changed?

Noam Yaron: Yes. First, once you experienced all of those challenges and raise awareness, do those collective actions, it's a success of course. But I was thinking, especially during the UN Ocean Conference where I had the chance to speak and give a conference there, I felt that my next challenge could be politics.

So I think I will do that as my next challenge. I will face other sharks that I could face in the Mediterranean, but I think it's very important to, instead of sitting there and criticising what's not happening, to be the one that is changing that and doing concrete actions. So I think that could be the first thing.

And yes, we are under discussions with different brands in different areas, trying to understand what's at stake, why they're using plastics, for example, in cigarette butts, like in cigarettes and the filters. Is there an alternative? Is it possible financially to change that on what scale, when? And all of those questions are very important because I truly think that we need to understand each other to get things moving and not shouting at this or that company saying, you are polluting, you're bad.

I think we have to work hand in hand, understand what's at stake for both parties and try to get to an agreement.

So I would say that would be my goal in politics. And we're already doing that at my scale, and which is pretty small. In Switzerland, we have big companies, of course, but I think I could do that on a larger scale. And if I get chosen and it's my path, I will do my best to defend my country, but also the planet, which is common to everyone. And hopefully the population will choose me, I don't know, but that will be the next challenge.

Robin Pomeroy: OK, so you're back in the water now in the Mediterranean, very different environment from Lake Geneva. It's salty for a start. And the marine life will be very different. I wonder maybe the pollution is very different as well. You've been in it for days, several times. What did you learn about the Mediterranean that maybe most of us don't know?

Noam Yaron: I learned a lot.

The first thing that I understood is that I will come across more plastics than animals. And that was the first moment when I realised that there is really a problem.

Secondly, I had the chance to get to know the species that are depending on the quality of water and that are living in the Mediterranean Sea and more specifically in this marine protected area that once again it's not really protected.

But the insane thing that I experienced during my first attempt, which was 103 kilometres in 48 hours in 2024, before doing this one. After 20 kilometres of swimming, so being quite far from the shore, from Corsica island, I started seeing whales and I've never seen a whale before and I could hear them on the water. I could see them while I was doing my breaks every 60 minutes. And I was like, feeling that they were here. To cheer me up, to encourage me to go further, like they understood why I was there, trying to defend them and their interests.

And that moved me a lot. And it's one of the things that got me to go back and try again. I've never failed challenge before 2024. So for me, it was a painful experience, but before even agreeing to go out, because it's my team that convinced me to go out because of the weather once again, it was the good call.

Yeah, there was something inside of me that I was like, I knew that I could finish at this first attempt, and we will never know, but I trusted my team that had all the information.

And before even agreeing to go out, I said to my team, I'm going out only if we go back and we try again next year. And they approved. And I was like, okay, I am going out with a mission, with a drive, with something to prepare, to hold on to and not to this what we can call a failure in a way.

And that was my first one. And what I didn't expect is that failure got me the biggest success of my life.

Media in France were talking about a huge swim and were praising the fact that I will try again and not emphasising the fact, that I go out from the water before the end of the swim.

So then this year we met less biodiversity, but we had the chance to go almost all the way swimming way more than we expected. And once again, the media were, in France at least, really, really positive about the swim, praising the success, the fact that nobody has done it before, the success of the mission that was to use the swim, where we saw all of those animals.

We saw rays, striped dolphins, turtles, sperm whales as well, hearing fin whales on the water, but this year I couldn't see one very up close, my team did. But it was insane and reconnecting people with the Mediterranean, with the ocean, with the life that depends on it was so crucial and it's the first step because how can we expect people to protect something they don't know? So that was the first thing.

And then we wanted to share the threats that the Mediterranean Sea is facing. And the first one and the main one is maritime traffic. We have 25% of the worldwide maritime traffic coming through the Mediterranean Sea. And this particular marine protected area that I swam across is facing a lot of threats due to ships that are going full speed and striking animals like fin whales that are protected and threatened according to the IUCN red list.

I think one out of five fin whales that we observe have marks of collision and it's the number one lethal cause in the area. So for me, it was life-changing to understand how complex it is, the Mediterranean is.

Full obviously of countries and people. I don't know how many millions, but the economy is huge in terms of traffic, of tourism, and to understand all of that and see how we can get to an agreement with all of those companies and try to understand how to come to a conclusion that is viable for everyone and try have nature at the centre of it while still doing profits because as we know, that's how the world works.

So it was a very hard study and lessons to learn, trying to get scientific experts to get us the real state of the Mediterranean, how the speed of the boat could be decreased and decreasing like drastically the lethal collision. And that's why we are advocating for 10 knots limit speed in the area.

Robin Pomeroy: What do they go at now?

Noam Yaron: More than 20 knots in the area and that's, as you know, and as we face in the reality with a car, it's not because it's twice as more that it's, twice as dangerous. The more you get, it's exponential. Like the energy and threat for the animals, it's more and more dangerous.

But the thing is, we're also working with innovation and startups that are trying to solutions that could even maybe get the shipment company not to lower the speed. For example, if we have a GPS, a satellite tracker that could see the whales before you're swimming close to it, the boat could avoid them. That could mean being faster and having less damage on the boat and obviously less lethal collisions. So that's existing, but we have to find ways to implement those solutions and those innovations in the real life, making it make sense, trying to improve those solutions.

So we are trying to follow up close all of those companies that are doing wonderful work and that could truly change the world.

Robin Pomeroy: What was it like the first time you were aware you were swimming near a fin whale? Fin whale's a big whale, right? What did it feel like to you?

Noam Yaron: So the first time that I came across a fin whale, I will always remember it. They were approximately two, I think, at the time. It was during my first attempt, in 2024.

I could hear them before arriving. And when I stopped for my break, I turned my head on the right and I saw this huge whale coming out of the water. It's approximately 27 metres. So it's half an Olympic pool, swimming next to you in a horizon of water so there is nothing, you can't see land. This feeling was insane, but I've never felt threatened or scared.

The energy was so peaceful and I just like turned my head on the other side and there was another one. And I think they followed me the entire first attempt for 48 hours. I couldn't remember even one time that I stopped and turned my and couldn't see an animal during the first attempt.

And this year in 2025, unfortunately we saw way less biodiversity, which I think could mean that the decline of biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea is way faster than I expected it. And maybe it was a bad day or bad five days because I spent a lot of time this time in the water. But it's kind of sad, but we had a boat specialised in scientific research, so we noted every species that we observed, the number of individuals, the species, and also the size.

And on the other side, we conveyed eDNA sequencing to understand what kind of species are going through the line of swimming that I was doing at the time. So we hope that we could discover species that we thought are maybe extinct or we couldn't see that often.

For example, we have sharks in the Mediterranean and I came across one. So it was a great experience as well. Not even frightening, but just a weird feeling that seeing this apex predator swimming just next to me and I was like, that's it.

So, I think we have to remember ourselves that shark attacks are really rare. At first in the Mediterranean Sea, it's even lower. I think, we had one in decades. Experts were saying if you came across a shark that is bigger than your size, so approximately two metres, you have to go out of the water and call off your world record attempt. Hopefully we didn't, so that's a good one. The one that we came across is a blue shark. And it was one metre and a half, so approximately a bit less than my size, but you have great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea. They are known to be one of the most dangerous sharks, but we need to remind ourselves that we are more of a threat for sharks than the opposite, and sharks are crucial for the ecosystem, and the goal is for us also to make that animal liked and understood and truly disconnect this fear of this animal that is once again crucial to to the whole ecosystem.

So yeah, I hope to come across other sharks during my next swims.

Robin Pomeroy: What about these ships then? I don't know that stretch of the Mediterranean between Corsica and Southern France or Monaco. Is that a busy shipping lane? Did you have to dodge around huge oil tankers and container ships?

Noam Yaron: So yes, it's a really busy area.

We had to come in contact with two big boats that were I think oil or shipment or big tourism boats, Corsica Ferries or MSC whatsoever. And they were like going through our route so it's pretty dangerous for the waves and also the, I would say the drag that they pull when they come close to us.

My team had to call them and ask if they can just take another route. And they all knew that I was doing this attempt. And they agreed to change their route, which is really rare. And we are really thankful for that.

But we truly face what all of those animals were facing. So the pollution, plastic, noise, but also chemical pollution. We also faced those big ships that are going way too fast, too often, and could be deadly if you enter into collision with them.

It felt really humbling to be kind of alone in the water, even if I had my team and two boats to protect me.

Just picture this, you are in the middle of the Mediterranean, 2,800 metres of water below you at night. You hear those whales, you hear those big boats, because obviously in the water, you can hear way further than here on land. And you feel that moment that you know that you will never experience again in your life.

And I think that's something that I'm really grateful for. And I'll try to share in conferences for big companies, but also at school because we are completely disconnected with our phones, watching this interview or listening to this. And even if it's important to be informed about the world and what's happening, but we truly are lacking the connection and the instinct that we lost.

And during those 102 hours, I connected with my soul, my brain, my body to a level that I will probably never do again. And I discovered a part of myself that I couldn't think was capable of doing what I did.

So. I think we have extraordinary potential and we are just using a couple of percentage of what we are truly capable of. Even if we're talking about physical capacity, the brain, the intelligence, I think, we are just choosing so little because we are not used to use that instinct, that survival instinct anymore.

And I think I got almost to the, yeah, I would say near-death experience when we out from the water because of the water that I was ingesting.

Because every stroke that you do, you have a small amount of water and some of it goes down your throat. And my lungs were filled with salty water and I, not drowned, but I was struggling to breathe.

And also those burns that covered 15% of my body to the second degree burns.

It's insane to think that I could push that far and get to that level of performance and get where, at least to our knowledge, no human being has done before under this condition.

So, as I said, I'm not a superhero, I am not a superhuman. I think we can all do extraordinary things if we put our heart and soul into it and that we believe it's possible. It was my dream and I'm happy to say that we accomplished it.

Robin Pomeroy: Tell us about that near-death experience then. You're struggling to breathe. Who made that call? Someone on the boat said, we've got to get this guy out of the water now. He's going to die if we leave him there.

Noam Yaron: Yes, so we were two kilometres away from the finish line, saying that out loud is also making it sad, but it's not.

I was struggling to breathe, so that was the first parameter that we were trying to see if we had some struggle breathing. It's the first thing to understand that it's yeah, it's done. We had to go out from the water, so, that was the first parameter that was ticked at that time.

And the second one was the capacity of swimming and I was standing still in the middle of the sun two kilometres away from shore because of the burns and the cut under my arms due to the salt and the crystals of the salt cutting my armpits and my body because of the friction with the wetsuit.

So those two parameters were truly ticked so it was just a matter of time before they were making that decision of taking me out of the water.

And just before they did, two people on my team had the power to decide to take me out. So, not my parents, that could definitely had taken me out after 48 hours.

But the thing that truly made that decision very easy is I was lying on my back trying to breathe and getting back to myself because I was struggling to understand what was happening because of fatigue, hallucinations and all of that stress. And I started leaving my body, seeing myself flying in the air, seeing lights and hearing things from heaven, whatsoever, whatever we call it. Hearing those voices that try to calm me down, like, it's okay, you did your best. Now it's done. You can rest. It's finished. You, you, did you, and I'm like, no, I'm not finished. I'm going back into my body and I've leaving this, this water.

And I got back into like in myself and I was like, okay, I shared this experience with my team and they said, okay, we are getting you out of there and we go to the hospital.

And then I was in Monaco in the hospital and they discovered that my oxygen level was so low that I shouldn't be able to breathe, and that was really shocking to me because I was obviously aware, awake, very tired, hallucinating still, but I was talking so the doctor said even if the oxygen level is way lower than he should be having and being aware and awake, I think we are pretty good to go. It seems he's not having any issue because we are also afraid that I had brain damage because of the lack of oxygen.

And after that they did a small, I would say, imagery of my lungs and they discovered that I had my lungs completely full of salt. And that was a second, I'd say, bad news. And they were like, okay, you are going to the emergency and we are not getting you out of there until your oxygen levels is back to normal. So approximately 99%. I was, yeah, way, way lower than that.

And the second thing is that the salt gets out of your lungs and there is nothing to do besides giving you oxygen through a mask. Because the lungs are obviously very sensitive. It's very tricky to treat.

And after 36 hours, my lungs were completely recovered. So we don't know how it's possible. It should have taken weeks and it took 36 hours. I was like, great.

Then I had a problem with some blood issues. It got back to normal after 10 hours.

So the recovery was insane. And the only thing I had to face is the burns, which is pretty bad, honestly. And I have to spend one year without being exposed to sunlight, which is really sad for a swimmer. And I was planning to enjoy next summer, not doing fifth challenge in a row, but we'll have to wait and I'll have to be wearing a t-shirt while swimming or enjoying the sea or the lake, whatever.

So that's sad. But besides that, I have no consequences in terms of health. So I'm very happy. My brain is doing well. And now we will focus on recovery and also building this incredible documentary that we will put together in a couple of weeks and hopefully having the greatest partner to broadcast that internationally in English and French. And yeah, to raise awareness to another level using this story that truly inspired a lot of people. And I think it could get even wider with this documentary.

I'd love to write a book as well on the entrepreneurship side of this adventure, because to finance those projects, you have to get the financing, the sponsors get people to believe in a project that nobody has done before. How do you do that? The ups and downs, the sponsors that just because they thought I couldn't do it. That almost crushed the entire project and we managed to find people that believed in the project and now looking back, I think they're happy about their decision.

It takes so many things to get to that level of performance, but also of, I would say, entrepreneurship where you get all of those people. We were approximately 50 people working on the project on different levels. We have weather provisionists, coach, mental coaching, and obviously medical team, boat drivers, head of feedings, organising all the challenge, head of sponsorships, like the team is insane and I had to manage all of those people. So at 28 years old, it was also a challenge to do that while being in the water as well. So I had to give that power to someone else.

But it was such a learning process and hopefully I will maybe do another challenge, maybe in the US or in Canada, because it's less salty in that part of the world, meaning they have great lakes, bigger than here in Switzerland, because I have the records on all of them.

So I hope that I could be able, very soon, to get back and do another challenge on a lake or a piece of water that makes sense and use it for nature once again and raise awareness on that specific area. So Lake Michigan, for example.

Robin Pomeroy: Noam Yaron.

To find out more about the World Economic Forum’s work on the ocean, check out the Friends of Ocean Action initiative, link in the show notes.

We’ve had several episodes about the ocean in recent months, including a video-podcast interview with the co-author of David Attenborough's latest book on the subject.

You can find that at wef.ch/podcasts or wherever you are listening to this.

Please follow Radio Davos and leave us a rating or review. And join the conversation on the World Economic Forum Podcast club on Facebook.

This episode of Radio Davos was presented by me, Robin Pomeroy, with editing by Jere Johansson and studio production by Taz Kelleher.

We will be back next week, but for now thanks to you for listening and goodbye.