Newport, VT - August 2nd, 2003 was the 25th anniversary of this international swimming event. As in previous years, it attracted an international group of swimmers including the winner of the previous year's competition, Peter Stoychev from Buglaria. He won the competition again.

One of the entries, Mohammed Hassan from Egypt, had a tough time. Despite three months obtaining a visa to enter the U.S. for the competition, he was almost prevented from participating. The Department of Homeland Security told Hassan that his name was on an FBI list and because of this, he would not be allowed to swim out of the United States and into Canada. He could, however, leave by any land exit point. The ruling almost caused a small diplomatic incident but it was resolved when the DHS said Hassan could swim across the border as long as he agreed to report back to a US border crossing as soon as he emerged from the water in Magog, Quebec. So this is what he did.

You have two formats to view the movie. MPEG-4, using QuickTime 6 and Windows Media Player. Total length is 4.42 minutes. You will need a broadband connection. File sizes are in excess of 14 MB, but a movie will start to play when you have about one third of the movie downloaded.