Buenos Aires--Two swimmers from Argentina and Britain will brave the frigid waters that separate the two main islands in the Falklands in an event to mark the 1982 war between the nations over the remote South Atlantic archipelago.
Argentine Matias Ola and Jackie Cobell of Britain will cross the five-kilometer (three-mile) waterway known as the Falkland Sound without wetsuits.
The pair will swim without either country's flag in temperatures below eight degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit).
Although the islands have been ruled by Britain since 1833, Argentina claims them as their own and 33 years ago attempted to seize control in a brief but bloody war that has tarnished ties between London and Buenos Aires ever since.
The crossing, which has never before been undertaken without a wetsuit, is one in a series of symbolic, unifying swims organized by Ola, including a Siberia-Alaska and Europe-Asia Istanbul swim.
Cobell, 60, and Ola, 30, first met two years ago while swimming the 134 kilometers between Alaska and Russia.
"Right away we agreed to swim together for peace between our two countries, which have until now been united only by the Falklands War" Ola said.
The Falkland Islands, known as the Malvinas in Spanish, are located 480 kilometers off the coat of Argentina.
AFP
