At 22, Lithuanian swimmer Juneta Krylovaitė has successfully crossed the English Channel, becoming the first woman from her country to complete the feat solo. She returned home on Sunday to a warm welcome at Vilnius Airport, where she spoke to reporters about the toughest moments of her swim and the purpose behind it.
“Happy to be back, because finally – I'm home. We had planned to fly back on the 21st, but since the weather wasn’t suitable for the swim, we had to wait for our last chance on Friday. We took it and had to change everything – from flights to hotels,” Krylovaitė explained.
Krylovaitė dedicated her crossing to the Youth Line helpline, aiming to raise €2,000 for the service. By Saturday afternoon, she had collected €2,017.
“Since childhood and even now I’ve faced certain psychological struggles, so the Youth Line felt very close to me. I wanted to show people that even when dealing with such challenges, everything can be overcome,” she said.
The Channel swim took 13 hours and 4 minutes, testing her strength to the limit. But reaching the sandy French coast, she felt great, especially when holding the Lithuanian flag in her hands.
The crossing was far from easy.
“The most difficult part was after eight hours, when I had to increase my pace for another hour to catch the accompanying current that would take me to the finish. And when night fell near the French coast – there were a lot of jellyfish, really big ones, stinging very painfully. That was probably the hardest moment,” she recalled.
The extreme effort left her unwell on return: “Right now I still have a bit of a cold, I feel a bit weak, with a temperature. But I think I’ll recover quickly.”
Krylovaitė had already swum across the Curonian Lagoon in 2019, and in 2023 joined a relay team to cross the Channel. This time, though, she fulfilled a personal dream.
Asked how she managed mentally to push through the cold and exhaustion, she said: “I had the chance to speak with an Irishman who had recently crossed the Channel. I asked him for advice and used it – for example, never to look at France, even when it’s visible. Just keep swimming.”
Her preparation took two years: “To avoid hypothermia, I gained some extra weight. I swam in ice holes, trained in cold water, and swam long distances.”
As for why she wanted to do it at all, Krylovaitė revealed: “It was my mum who planted the idea when I was 14. From the start I was fascinated, but also very afraid. A few years ago, I had the chance to do the relay, and that gave me the idea – I want to do it alone. This thought had been with me since I was 14, but I had to grow up, gain experience. And now I’ve managed to do it.”
Text prepared by Matas Bagamolovas.
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