Strel was born in the town of
Mokronog, in the
Slovenian region of
Lower Carniola, then part of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Strel's first two river swims were the
Krka river (105 kilometres) in his homeland, in 28 hours in 1992, and the boundary
Kolpa river (), in 16 hours in 1993. In 2000, he swam the
Danube River () and achieved the world long distance swimming record () in 58 days. In July 2001, he achieved one more world record — of non-stop swimming in Danube within 84 hours and 10 minutes. He lost 40 pounds of weight. In 2002, he swam the entire
Mississippi River () in 68 days. In 2003, he swam the Argentine
Paraná River (). On 10 June 2004, Martin started swimming down the
Yangtze River (, the longest river in Asia, the third longest in the world) in
China. He reached
Shanghai in 40 days on 30 July 2004, one day before planned. Strel swam the
Amazon River, commencing on 1 February 2007, finishing 66 days later on 7 April 2007. In June 2011 Strel completed his Colorado River Swim challenge for the documentary ''
Stan Lee's Superhumans''. Achievements by year: • 2008: Sognefjord, Norway; Loch Ness, UK • 2009: Doha, Qatar; River Thames, UK; River Cam, UK • 2010: Grand Canyon, Arizona, US; Lake Mead, Nevada/Arizona, US • 2011: Lake Ontario, Canada; Lake Simcoe, Canada; Lake Arenal, Costa Rica; San Juan River, Costa Rica • 2012: Saguaro Lake, Arizona, US; Canyon Lake, Arizona, US; Apache Lake, Arizona, US Theodore Roosevelt Lake, Arizona, US • 2013: Lake Powell, Arizona/Utah, US; Robben Island, South Africa • 2014: Bondi Beach, Australia; Shelly Beach, Australia • 2015: Lake Pleasant, Arizona, US; Tennessee River, Tennessee, US • 2016: Rocky Point, Mexico; Alkhobar (Saudi Arabia) – Manamma (Bahrain) • 2017: Manhattan, New York, US; Lake Wörth, Austria • 2018: Alcatraz – Golden Gate Bridge, US • 2019: Farallon Islands, California, US • 2020: San Diego River, California, US • 2021: Mura River, Slovenia ==
Big River Man ==