Berkeley marathon swimmer aims to be youngest swimmer in the world to complete Oceans Seven while raising funds for cancer research through Swim Across America

Marathon teen swimming sensation Maya Merhige of Berkeley, California, a rising sophomore at Georgetown University, successfully swam the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to Morocco on Tuesday, August 11, completing the sixth of the seven legendary channel crossings that make up the Oceans Seven. Maya completed the challenging swim in 3 hours, 49 minutes and 49 seconds, swimming from the coast of Tarifa, Spain to Eddalya, Morocco.

The Strait of Gibraltar separates Europe from Africa and connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea. At its narrowest, the crossing is approximately 14.4 kilometers, or about 9 miles, although tides and challenging currents typically require swimmers to cover a considerably longer route. The Strait of Gibraltar is a unique location where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea and is known as a significant area for dolphins, fin and pilot whales, orcas, and other sea life, as well as being a busy shipping channel. With strong currents, unpredictable winds, and strict permissions, the Strait of Gibraltar is also known as one of the most important swims of the seven continents. The swim is run by The Strait of Gibraltar Swimming Association, or ACNEG, which oversees and certifies crossings in cooperation with maritime authorities offering just two-or-three crossings a year.

With the Strait of Gibraltar marking Maya’s sixth successful Oceans Seven crossing in just five years, the goal of being the youngest person in the world to complete the Oceans Seven challenge is within reach. Only 52 swimmers in the world have completed the Oceans Seven.

The Oceans Seven is considered the aquatic equivalent of mountaineering’s Seven Summits and requires swimmers to complete seven of the world’s best-known ocean channel crossings. Of those swims, Maya at age 14 completed the Catalina Channel in 2021, breaking the record for the youngest woman to swim the 32.3 km (20-miles) Catalina Channel; in 2023 at 15, she swam the 42 km (26 miles) Kaiwi or Molokai Channel, also the youngest to ever complete that crossing; in 2024, at 16 she successfully swam the 33 km (20.5 miles) English Channel; in 2025, at 17, the 22.5 km (14 miles) New Zealand’s Cook Strait was completed – where Maya suffered hundreds of jellyfish stings; this past July, at 18, she swam the 34.5 km (21.4 miles) grueling North Channel from Ireland to Scotland; and now, August 11, 2026, weeks after turning 19, she successfully swam the 14.4 km (9 miles) Strait of Gibraltar. Her final challenge is the 19.5 km (12.1 miles) Tsugaru Strait in Japan which she plans to attempt in 2027. 

Maya has also swum the Tahoe Triple Crown, the Manhattan 20 Bridges swim, the Angel Island swim and the Three Rocks swim in San Francisco Bay. Just a week after her 13th birthday, she became the youngest woman to swim the width of Lake Tahoe. 

Maya also aims to break another record with her Oceans Seven swims – becoming the youngest person in the world to complete all seven swims.

As significant as this milestone is for Maya Merhige personally, her swims have always been about something bigger.

Maya swims to make waves to fight cancer through Swim Across America, the nonprofit she first joined at age 9 in San Francisco to honor a family friend and three-time cancer survivor, and in memory of a family friend who sadly passed away from brain cancer at age 12. Throughout the past decade, she has raised more than $190,000 for cancer research and has carried the names of friends and family members affected by cancer on her swim cap during her marathon swims. This summer alone, Maya has raised more than $20,000 toward her $45,000 goal, with fundraising continuing throughout her Oceans Seven journey.

“Every time I get in the water, I am carrying others with me who have had a far more challenging journey than I’m undertaking,” Maya noted. “I am swimming for those whose names are on my cap, for families who need hope and for the research that can lead to better treatments.”

With the Strait of Gibraltar swim, Maya was also swimming for Sydney Towle, the 26-year-old social media content creator who sadly passed away on August 5th after a nearly three-year battle with metastatic cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive bile duct cancer. Sydney Towle was diagnosed at age 23 and became known to her more than 1.2 million TikTok followers for candidly sharing her experiences with cancer, treatment and life as a young adult facing the disease.

Before the Strait of Gibraltar swim, Merhige shared Sydney’s story on her own @chasing_channels account and thanked Sydney’s brother, Austin Towle, for allowing her to honor his sister with her swim. Sydney’s brother and mother announced her passing last week after she had spent the past several years publicly raising awareness of the realities of cancer in young adults.

For Maya Merhige, Sydney’s story reinforced the reason she continues taking on extraordinary challenges in the water: to raise funds and awareness for the cancer research that can lead to new therapies and more options for patients.

Unlike many of Maya’s previous solo channel swims, the Strait of Gibraltar is frequently organized with swimmers of comparable speed crossing together. Merhige was paired with two other swimmers: Carles of Spain and Dan of the United Kingdom, who met before the swim and were bound to help keep each other motivated throughout the crossing with a simple goal: start together, finish together — and have fun along the way. The day was perfect for the swim with sunny skies and crystal clear blue water.

The Strait of Gibraltar swim also became a family affair with Maya’s mother Liz Tung on the boat as part of Maya’s crew – for the first time since Maya’s grueling Molokai Channel crossing three years ago, which Liz stated was so hard and long that it had kept her on land for Maya’s other Oceans Seven swims. Her father Chris Merhige, who has been a constant on Maya’s crew boat, once again provided what the family describes as the “calm force” behind the operation. And for the first time during one of Maya’s major crossings, her younger sister Lucy was aboard the escort boat to experience the adventure firsthand. Also rounding out the crew was Kelly Gentry, Maya’s coach and safety coordinator.

Last month’s North Channel swim, which is known as the toughest of the Ocean Seven swims, had Maya swimming 34.5 kilometers, or 21.4 miles, from Ireland to Scotland in 12 hours, 19 minutes and 37 seconds. The swim came exactly one year after Maya underwent major surgery following a series of health challenges stemming from the discovery of a benign pancreatic tumor after a 2023 ski accident.

Those experiences have given Merhige an even deeper appreciation for what patients and families endure during serious health crises and strengthened her commitment to using her swimming to help others.

“Swimming for me is easy compared to what those with cancer have to go through,” noted Maya. “If I can help raise funds that help fund critical cancer research through Swim Across America, and help find more and better cures through swimming, I’m going to do just that.”

The funds raised by Maya Merhige for Swim Across America go directly to support pediatric cancer research and patient care at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco Survivors of Childhood Cancer Program.

Nationally, Swim Across America has raised more than $150 million for cancer research since its founding in 1987. The nonprofit organization has supported the research and clinical trials of several immunotherapy treatments that have led to the FDA approval to treat numerous types of cancer, and supports more than 60 cancer research projects annually at leading cancer institutions across the country.

To support Maya’s Oceans Seven journey and fundraising efforts for cancer research through Swim Across America, visit swimacrossamerica.org/maya.