Youngest person to swim the Catalina Channel (female)

The youngest female to swim between Santa Catalina Island and the California mainland, USA, is Stacey Fresonke (USA, b. 4 April 1957), who was aged 14 years 132 days on 14 August 1971. She completed the crossing in 12 hours 34 minutes. The record was historically verified by the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation.

The Catalina Channel is a 20.2-mile-wide (32.3-km) stretch of water between Catalina Island and the mainland in southern California, USA. It is one of the Oceans Seven, the open-water swimming community's equivalent of mountaineering's Seven Summits, overseen by the World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA). The other six waterways that make up the challenge are: the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland, UK; the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand; the Molokai Channel between Oahu and Molokai Islands in Hawaii, USA; the English Channel between England and France; the Tsugaru Channel between the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido in Japan; and the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain (Europe) and Morocco (Africa).

The oldest person to successfully swim across the Catalina Channel is Pat Marzulli (USA, b. 13 November 1948), who was aged 69 years 312 days when he completed the swim on 21 September 2018.

Stacey made the crossing as part of a tandem swim with three fellow swimmers from the Seal Beach Swim Club, coached by Ron Blackledge: Lynne Cox, Dennis Sullivan and Andy Taylor (who at 12 years 128 days old on the day is the youngest swimmer of the Catalina Channel ever). Note that under-14s are no longer sanctioned to attempt the crossing for safety reasons.