The Rottnest Channel Swim is an annual open water swimming event from Cottesloe Beach through Gage Roads to Rottnest Island, off the coast of Western Australia, near Perth. Format The distance is and it is one of the largest open water swimming events in the world, with 2,400 swimmers participating in the 2015 event. It is held in February each year and is open to solo swimmers and teams of two or four. A second event, "Champions of the Channel" for elite solo swimmers, was introduced in 2016. The "Lavan Legal Charity Challenge" is an exclusive challenge for 30 teams of four for those who wish to fundraise money for a charity of their choice while competing for the Lavan Legal Charity Challenge Cup. History When Rottnest Island was used as a prison it was rumoured that some of the prisoners swam back to the mainland, although there is no proof that any did. However, some may have crossed by resting on Carnac and Garden Islands. The first documented crossing by a swimmer was Gerd Von Dincklage-Schulenburg, 24 January 1956, in 9 hours and 45 minutes. As of October 2016, von Dinklage was aged 87 and living in the German town of Dörentrup. First race - early years Von Dincklages' swim led the Weekend Mail newspaper to hold the first organised race to the island later that year, in March 1956, which was completed by four participants. In the years to come, the first woman to swim to the island was 23-year-old Lesley Cherriman on 13 April 1969. She swam from Natural Jetty to North Mole and became the first female to complete a crossing, a feat she repeated on 18 February 1970 and again on 4 April 1971 from the mainland to Rottnest. In 1990, The Rottnest Channel Swim Association (RCSA) was formed with John Whitehead as its first president. Despite the modest success of the 1956 event, another organised race to the island would not be held until 23 February 1991, with sixteen solo swimmers and seven teams competing, a total of 44 swimmers. The solo event was won in 4:30:03 by Peter Galvin. The success of the swim led to it becoming an annual event. In 1994, the youngest swimmer to ever compete was Kutraleeswaran from Tamil Nadu, India, who completed the swim at the age of 13 in 1994. By 1996, the race had 52 solos,