The 28th Bosporus Cross-Continental Swimming Race was held Saturday 24 in the waterway dividing the Asian and European sides of Istanbul, with over 1,500 swimmers from 49 countries completing the 6.5 kilometre race from the Asian to the European side.

Swimming alongside them was Australian long-distance swimmer and this year’s TOC honorary celebrity guest Shelley Taylor-Smith. Despite suffering from scoliosis at a young age and partial paralysis later in her career, Taylor-Smith defied all medical odds to win an astonishing seven consecutive FINA Marathon World Cups. She also won gold at the 1991 World Aquatics Championships in Perth and bronze at the 1994 Championships in Rome.

Organized by the Turkish Olympic Committee and sponsored by electronics giant Samsung, the race started from Kanl?ca on Istanbul’s Asian side and ended in Kuruçe?me on the European side.

The Bosporus race, which began as a local swim in 1988, has now evolved into an international swimming event attracting thousands of participants from across the globe.

Turkish swimmers Ömer Tara and Nilay Erkal won the race in the men’s and women’s category respectively, while Bulgarian swimmer Dimitar Videnov was the only foreigner to reach the top three by securing second place in the men’s category.

The race was started by Youth and Sports Minister Akif Çağatay Kılıç, with a large crowd and media crews from all around the world gathered on the shore to watch and cover the race.

Minister K?l?ç said at the launch that it was important that 800 of the competitors were foreigners. “They see there is nothing extraordinary in Turkey after (the coup attempt) last week and no sports event has been cancelled,” he said to the media.