Following his world-record breaking swim earlier this week, ultra endurance swimmer Neil Agius said Saturday that "it is time to focus on other things." 

During a press conference held by Agius and his team at the Royal Malta Yacht Club, the world-record swimmer announced that unless the urge to go back into the open water compels him to go for another mammoth challenge, he shall be dedicating his time to help others reach their peak performance.

Neil Agius set a new world record on Monday evening after swimming across 142 kilometres of open water over an official time of 60 hours, 35 minutes, and four seconds. His world record was ratified by the World Open Water Swimming Association on Friday, his team announced.

Despite shattering his previous world record of 125km, which he had completed in 2021, Agius had cut the original route for his recent swim short due to worsening weather conditions. According to his team, he was physically ready to complete the 160km originally intended.

Agius and his partner and lead motivator, Lara Vella, plan on helping other people through a kaizen hub. He described this to be a space where they will offer yoga, breathing workshops, and other activities that enable Agius to "share all that I've learned with everyone."

"These tools are going to be gamechangers for everyone," Agius said, "To learn how to be good at tough things, you need to do tough things. This is what I'm going to be teaching, and this is what I'm going to be sharing, and I'm excited about it."

Agius said that it felt "extremely humbling" to be in his position as a uniting figure of the Maltese islands through his extraordinary feats. 

He thus called upon those in power to understand his experience, and use it as a blueprint to continue uniting the country overcome differences.

"Now we have the blueprint, now we know - and now the people responsible for taking us there need to take the steps to take us there," Agius said.

Agius recalled that having this realisation, while admittedly not trying to search for this answer, "has been one of the biggest gifts of this swim."

Agius and his team of 29 people were very content to merge his swimming with activism. During his most recent endeavour, two clean-ups were organised and in them, over 790kg worth of marine plastic and other items from the sea, such as glass, were collected and appropriately disposed of.

The team invited everyone, especially those who did not participate in these clean-ups, to collect marine plastic and dispose of them in any of one of the "Tribe bins" set up by local NGO Żibel.

Neil Agius' 60-hour world-record breaking experience

During this press conference, the Maltese athlete outlined some of the physical struggles he endured during his swim, as well as the physical consequences his body is presently undergoing, nearly a week later.

Agius described that during his preparation for this monumental physical feat, he assumed that it would be easier to swim around an island, or in this case, the Maltese islands, than what he is typically accustomed to in these ultra endurance swims: swimming from one body of land to another, e.g., Linosa to Xlendi in 2021. Earlier this week, he realised he was mistaken, he admitted.

Agius described how swimming over shallow waters often allowed him to see the shadows beneath when it wasn't pitch black. He said that "seeing rocks right below were easy to confuse with anything else," aggravating his hallucinations during his 60-hour swim.

He said he was worried to begin hallucinating around the 30-hour mark, since that is around when he began seeing things in the open water during his world-record swim three years ago. During this week's swim however, the hallucinations suddenly aggravated near the very end - particularly when he and his team decided to end the swim after 142.3km at Għar Lapsi.

Agius was very visually disturbed after the long hours at sea. He narrated that by the end of the swim, during his final drinking breaks, whenever he was handed a single bottle of water, he was seeing four of them.

At the end of this week's unassisted swim, Agius was greeted by a crowd of onlookers waiting to congratulate him, though according to him, he couldn't tell, despite all the cheers.

"I couldn't hear anyone, I couldn't see anyone," Agius said. "All I could see were pellets of light and the waves weren't letting me hear the people."

He narrated how, despite swimming into the same cove many times throughout his life, he could not identify where the ladder to land was, and only managed to complete his swim thanks to his team pointing glowsticks towards where he had to go.

Team Neil Agius recounted that by the end of the swim, the swells in the water were two metres high and hitting the boat every five seconds. The strong waves forced Agius to slow down, resulting in him swimming 6.5km in 10 hours - half of his regular pace, according to his team. As he was swimming to conclude the swim, these swells were reportedly crashing into the Maltese cliffside, doubling in height, and swashing about "like a washing machine."

Agius is now five days into recovery, though is still physically struggling. While his muscles feel fine, his mouth, nose, and throat are "still struggling quite a bit." He shared how he is still blowing pieces of skin outside of his nose, due to the continuous saltwater erosion. He also "cannot breathe from his nose" when he currently sleeps, forcing him to breathe from his mouth, even though this is still unpleasant due to his ulcers.

His swim was broken down into 30-minute segments where he would swim for 28.5 minutes and use the remaining 90 seconds to eat, drink, urinate, and discuss with his team while remaining in the water. His team were attempting to regulate his temperature by serving him warm food and drinks; this proved exceptionally important since Agius began feeling chilling cold earlier than expected, thus resulting in his body wasting more energy early on to try keep him warm.

Agius said that he felt so chilled that he was afraid doctors would check him and end the swim early, since he felt convinced that he was hypothermic early on. To complete the challenge, Agius tried to focus on his swimming technique and on ensuring that he kept his mouth shut to avoid his mouth getting even more swollen.

"I was continuously cold until the end of the swim," he said.

The team recounted the nights to be the most challenging periods of the swim. Despite this, they chose to face this challenge during the end of September, opting to endure longer nights, so as to avoid any swarms of jellyfish; Agius had previously attempted to break his 2021 world record last year while swimming off the coast of Mallorca, though had to end the swim prematurely due to several harsh jellyfish stings.

Aside from his freezing sensation, Agius was also losing one of his senses during the night - his sight - given the total darkness in this open environment.

Thankful for support

Agius said that this team decided to accomplish this challenge around the Maltese archipelago because "it was time to bring the power of these swims home."

Being close to the Maltese islands reportedly made it much easier for people to support him. His team shared their gratitude to everyone who cheered them on during these 60 hours, including those who did so via social media or by catching the Gozo ferry to physically support him throughout.

"I feel like the story really transcended into everybody over the 60 hours," Agius said.

The team stated that everyone's support was a factor in Agius retaining the set route for this world record, despite poor conditions. Agius' team reportedly considered changing his route twice and make him circle Gozo twice, causing Agius to burst into tears mid-swim, over 30 hours in.

"When I put my face back into the water, I immediately started crying for the reason that I felt like I can't believe everything we did is going to be all for nothing," Agius said. During this press conference, he explained that in official swims, altering one's original route allows others to illegitimize his feat. The people's support, as well as his and his team's dedication, made them push through and conclude the swim, along the intended route.

This decision was said to have been "pivotal" since for a world record to be ratified, the swimmer must follow a certain route and leave the water unassisted. For its ratification, every detail of Agius' swim was logged, from his swimming speed, to what he consumed and when, to the air temperature, etc.