Our history
On 1949 Aldo Fioravanti and Cesare Alfieri, two amateur swimmers, were the first ones to cover the distance from Naples to Capri island in around 12 hours, at an average of 30 strokes per minute.
The Capri-Napoli marathon is the oldest real open water marathon and one of the most faschinating and difficult swimming marathon.
Until 1992 it awarded the lond distance world title.
Now it is "World Challenge" of the annual Ultramarathon Swim Series. A new challenge focused on the open water long distance.
The Gulf of Naples is the faschinating "race field" of this historic event which usually starts from Marina Grande in Capri and finishing at Naples seafront over a distance of 36 km.
The edition 2025 of the race from Capri to Naples will be the 60th in 72 years; the 23rd one of the recent past (from 2003, after a break of 10 years).
Before the long break of 1992 there have been 37 editions in 39 years: the first one dates back to August, 1st on 1954 and the last one to July 5th on 1992 (It was not played on 1984 and on 1985).
The Capri-Napoli event is surely one of the most celebrated and known in its field. After years of more and more spectacular and fascinating sea challenges, the event has enlarged its horizons and has gone beyond the Italian borders, becoming famous and well-known all over the world. Precisely for this reason, the International Federation of long-distance swimming elected it as test for the assignment of the long-distance swimming world champion title, retaining this characteristic until the beginning of the 90s.
The event, from 1954 to 1992 has always been organized and promoted by the newspaper "Il Mattino", above all thanks to the passion and the commitment of the journalists Alberto Barone and Lello Barbuto, promoters of the race.
Since 2003 the event is promoted by "Eventualmente - Eventi e Comunicazione" marketing and sport promotion Agency.
The Gulf of Naples is the fascinating "race field" of this contest starting normally from "Le Ondine" at Marina Grande in Capri (with only four exceptions: 1978 from Marina Piccola, 2010 from the Blue Grotto and in 1981 and 2017 with a race course below the coast in Naples for the prohibitive weather-marine conditions) and finishing to the sea-front in Naples.
The duration of the competition for the winners, in the last years, is between 6 hours and 4' and 6 hours and 45', according to the sea and weather conditions. Times very far from those of the first editions, when the victory came after swimming well over 10 hours!
The fascination of the sea marathons, much more tiring than the earth ones, just lies in the incredible effort going on for several hours in unnatural conditions.
In 2025 the Capri-Naples Marathon, the elite part, will take place on the weekend of 6-7 September, while the open competitions are scheduled on 13 (finish at Vesuvius), 20, 27 June and 4 July.
Starting from the 2016 edition, the O.C. togheter with CONI (Italian Olimpic Commettee) introduces the Trophy "Giulio Travaglio" for the best Italian athlete participating at the official race remembering a great friend and one the best swimmer won the race.
The success of this event is clear looking at in its numbers (updated on 2024): 750 swimmers (562 men and 188 women), with 1.684 swimmers at the start from 60 nations and 5 continents more then 550 swimmers who swam the competition in relays.
The ones who know the event surely remember the so-called "Nile's crocodiles" the famous Egyptian athletes who "invented" this kind of contest and first left their mark on the event achieving the first victory with Marey Hassan. The Egyptians were always clashed by the "Argentinian Caymans", holding the male record of victories by nations (11) shared with the Italians. Argentine are also the attendance records, which belongs for the male side to Damian Blaum, 16 times at the start. And for the female side, Pilar Geijo and Vanesa Garcia, 12 times at the start.
The holder of the attendance record, also counting the participations in the "open" relay competitions, is another Argentinian: Claudio Plit, winner 4 times in the Gulf of Naples, who, until 2021, held the attendance record (15). But also counting the presences in the "open" competitions Claudio Plit was present in 21 editions in 6 different decades ('70, '80, '90, 2000 and, in relay, 6 times between 2013 and 2024).
An Italian swimmer, the Neapolitan Giulio Travaglio, holds the PRO individual victories record, in fact he arrived at the first place for 5 times (1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1970), well representing the great and long Italian tradition concerning this discipline.
Finally, the record in terms of time of the competition belongs to Arianna Bridi (ITA) who won the 2020 edition with the historic time of 6h 04' and 26 ", also preceding all the men at the finish line. While at the men's level the record is was set by Marcel Schouten (NED) with a time of 6h 05 'and 07 ", also set in 2020, the year of records.
The Capri-Napoli marathon is the oldest real open water marathon and one of the most faschinating and difficult swimming marathon.
Until 1992 it awarded the lond distance world title.
Now it is "World Challenge" of the annual Ultramarathon Swim Series. A new challenge focused on the open water long distance.
The Gulf of Naples is the faschinating "race field" of this historic event which usually starts from Marina Grande in Capri and finishing at Naples seafront over a distance of 36 km.
The edition 2025 of the race from Capri to Naples will be the 60th in 72 years; the 23rd one of the recent past (from 2003, after a break of 10 years).
Before the long break of 1992 there have been 37 editions in 39 years: the first one dates back to August, 1st on 1954 and the last one to July 5th on 1992 (It was not played on 1984 and on 1985).
The Capri-Napoli event is surely one of the most celebrated and known in its field. After years of more and more spectacular and fascinating sea challenges, the event has enlarged its horizons and has gone beyond the Italian borders, becoming famous and well-known all over the world. Precisely for this reason, the International Federation of long-distance swimming elected it as test for the assignment of the long-distance swimming world champion title, retaining this characteristic until the beginning of the 90s.
The event, from 1954 to 1992 has always been organized and promoted by the newspaper "Il Mattino", above all thanks to the passion and the commitment of the journalists Alberto Barone and Lello Barbuto, promoters of the race.
Since 2003 the event is promoted by "Eventualmente - Eventi e Comunicazione" marketing and sport promotion Agency.
The Gulf of Naples is the fascinating "race field" of this contest starting normally from "Le Ondine" at Marina Grande in Capri (with only four exceptions: 1978 from Marina Piccola, 2010 from the Blue Grotto and in 1981 and 2017 with a race course below the coast in Naples for the prohibitive weather-marine conditions) and finishing to the sea-front in Naples.
The duration of the competition for the winners, in the last years, is between 6 hours and 4' and 6 hours and 45', according to the sea and weather conditions. Times very far from those of the first editions, when the victory came after swimming well over 10 hours!
The fascination of the sea marathons, much more tiring than the earth ones, just lies in the incredible effort going on for several hours in unnatural conditions.
In 2025 the Capri-Naples Marathon, the elite part, will take place on the weekend of 6-7 September, while the open competitions are scheduled on 13 (finish at Vesuvius), 20, 27 June and 4 July.
Starting from the 2016 edition, the O.C. togheter with CONI (Italian Olimpic Commettee) introduces the Trophy "Giulio Travaglio" for the best Italian athlete participating at the official race remembering a great friend and one the best swimmer won the race.
The success of this event is clear looking at in its numbers (updated on 2024): 750 swimmers (562 men and 188 women), with 1.684 swimmers at the start from 60 nations and 5 continents more then 550 swimmers who swam the competition in relays.
The ones who know the event surely remember the so-called "Nile's crocodiles" the famous Egyptian athletes who "invented" this kind of contest and first left their mark on the event achieving the first victory with Marey Hassan. The Egyptians were always clashed by the "Argentinian Caymans", holding the male record of victories by nations (11) shared with the Italians. Argentine are also the attendance records, which belongs for the male side to Damian Blaum, 16 times at the start. And for the female side, Pilar Geijo and Vanesa Garcia, 12 times at the start.
The holder of the attendance record, also counting the participations in the "open" relay competitions, is another Argentinian: Claudio Plit, winner 4 times in the Gulf of Naples, who, until 2021, held the attendance record (15). But also counting the presences in the "open" competitions Claudio Plit was present in 21 editions in 6 different decades ('70, '80, '90, 2000 and, in relay, 6 times between 2013 and 2024).
An Italian swimmer, the Neapolitan Giulio Travaglio, holds the PRO individual victories record, in fact he arrived at the first place for 5 times (1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1970), well representing the great and long Italian tradition concerning this discipline.
Finally, the record in terms of time of the competition belongs to Arianna Bridi (ITA) who won the 2020 edition with the historic time of 6h 04' and 26 ", also preceding all the men at the finish line. While at the men's level the record is was set by Marcel Schouten (NED) with a time of 6h 05 'and 07 ", also set in 2020, the year of records.