Otto Thaning

Otto Thaning is a South African heart surgeon and open water swimmer whose Channel career spans twenty years between two successful solos. Guinness gives his birth date as 13 March 1941. In a published account of his career, he described training under Christiaan Barnard and combining medical practice in Cape Town with a lasting interest in swimming.

His route to a Channel finish included an unsuccessful swim in 1992 and a weather-disrupted return in 1993. The federation's historical record confirms that on 30 August 1994 he completed England to France in 10 hours 29 minutes, aged 53, with Michael Oram piloting Aegean Blue. The record attributes ratification to the Channel Swimming Association.

Thaning returned on 6 September 2014 and finished in 12 hours 52 minutes, landing at Wissant Bay. Guinness recognised the oldest male Channel crossing at 73 years 177 days. A CS&PF summary instead prints 73 years four months; the differing age descriptions remain explicit. This was the next age-record milestone after Cyril Baldock's crossing that August.

His swimming continued into his eighties. In April 2021, the Cape Long Distance Swimming Association reported an age-80 Robben Island crossing in 2 hours 52 minutes. The same association records that he and Lewis Pugh made a pioneering Lake Malawi crossing in 1992.