Antonio Argüelles

Along with a successful career as businessman and public servant, Antonio Argüelles has dedicated his life to high-performance sports and the promotion of physical activity in Mexico. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a BA in Germanic Studies and Economics.

As a public servant, he was Undersecretary of the Secretariat of Commerce and Industrial Development, as well as the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit. He was also General Director of the National College of Technical Professional Education (CONALEP), where he initiated a deep transformation of this subsystem of higher secondary education.

Argüelles is currently General Director at the New Technological School (NET)—a project that provides high quality education at a low cost in several districts in the outskirts of Mexico City—and partner at Del Mar al Cielo, an applied research and consultancy organization that focuses on public education.

In the field of sports and physical activity, he founded the Mexican Triathlon Federation and the Queremos Mexicanos Activos foundation. Among other achievements, he holds the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, which consists of three marathon swims: the Catalina Channel, the English Channel, and the circumnavigation of Manhattan. He is the third athlete to achieve it in a single season and the first to do it twice.

Argüelles reached the peak of his sporting career in 2017, when he completed the Oceans Seven. This challenge consists of seven treacherous swims around the world: the English Channel, the Strait of Gibraltar, the Catalina Channel, the Cook Strait, the Tsugaru Strait, the Molokai Channel, and the North Channel. After swimming across the latter in August 2017, Argüelles became the seventh person in the world to complete the Oceans Seven. In doing so at 58 years old—20 years above the average age of the previous six swimmers—he set a new Guinness world record: the oldest person to swim the Oceans Seven.

In 2009 Argüelles received the National Sports Award in Mexico, and in 2015 he was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame and was
named Man of the Year by the World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA). In 2017, after completing the Ocean’s Seven, he received this award for the second time in his career. He is co-author, along with Nora Toledano, of With Each Stroke: The Endless Blue, a book in which he narrates his experience swimming across the English Channel.

Boris Nowalski

Boris has been a swimmer since he was 6 years old. He was born in Costa Rica and has spent most of his life in the water either swimming in a pool or in the ocean, or surfing around the world. He was a competitive swimmer during his childhood in Costa Rica and made it to the national team in several occasions.

During his college years in the United Sates he was part of the swimming team of Tufts University and participated in many competitions at the local, state, and national level of NCAA Division III.

More recently, Boris has been part of various masters swimming clubs in Spain, where he has participated in numerous international swimming competitions. Besides being a competitive swimmer, Boris has completed several ocean swims and triathlons both in Spain and internationally. Boris’ passion for the ocean goes beyond surfing and open water swimming; he is also a certified open water diver.

• Certified Total Immersion Coach
• Founder and head coach at Mallorca Open Swim
• Master swimmer
• First aid and CPR course by Red Cross Spain
• Licensed boat captain – Spain

Rafael Álvarez Fariña

• Bachelor of Physical Education (Uruguay)
• Postgraduate studies in Sports Training (Uruguay)
• Swimming Technician (Uruguay)
• Master in Sports Management (Spain)
• Deputy Director of Become Water (www.bew.com.mx)
• Corporate Manager of Pools and High Performance Sports (in 40 clubs)
• Trainer and coach of Antonio Argüelles (Oceans Seven)
• Trainer of select Olympic and world champions
• Trainer at INDE BC
• Trainer of the rally world champion
• University professor (bachelor’s and master’s degrees)Academic advisor of several sports institutes
• Manager of educational sports programs for swimming pools and gyms
• Speaker at multiple national and international congresses
• Researcher on genetic-profile-based training
• Researcher on aquatic education
• Author of multiple physical preparation programs
• National and international speaker (more than 60 conferences)
• Member of the Ibero-American Association of Aquatic Education

Ricardo Durón

Ricardo is founder of the Force Immersion system, member of the board of directors of the International Swim Coaches Association (ISCA), Deputy Director of Become Water, university professor for the Sciences in Sports career, swimming coach, and specialist in Muscle Activation Techniques (MAT). He holds a Master’s degree in Strengths (RTSM) and an LAE and Bachelor’s degree in Sports from La Salle University. He is also a coach instructor in swimming techniques and training methodology, associate trainer in Latin America for the Cybex Research Institute, a former national swimmer, and passionate about health sciences and high performance training.

As a coach, his team won the masters national championship 13 times in a row, as well as one masters Pan-American championship (2007-2014). He has trained Mexican medalists in youth and “first strength” national championships.

As a biomechanist his swimmers include gold winners in Central American Games, national records, and participants in world championships (2013), Pan American Games (2015) and Olympic Games (2016). He was part of Antonio Argüelles’ support team during his Oceans Seven quest (2017). He has also worked directly with the Chinese youth team in Beijing (2018).

Dr. Ariadna Del Villar

Ariadna has worked as: Medical Officer for the junior teams of the Club Universidad Nacional, April 2004 to October 2007; Physician affiliated to CIMA (Integral Commitment of Mexico with its Athletes), CONADE 2009-2010; and Physician affiliated to the National Center for Research and Care in Sports Medicine of the National Institute of Rehabilitation.

From January 2008 to date, she has also been in charge of biochemical control and medical/sports monitoring during different open water swims: Catalina Channel, Circumnavigation of Manhattan, English Channel, Strait of Gibraltar, Molokai Channel, Tsugaru Strait, Cook Strait and North Channel. Some of the swimmers who have been under her care are: Antonio Argüelles, seventh person in the world to complete the Oceans Seven, René Martínez, Nora Toledano, and Mariel Hawley. The latter holds the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming and is currently seeking, together with Toledano, to complete the Oceans Seven. In addition, Ariadna took care of other swimmers during a relay in the English Channel and of Liz Fry in her opposite direction Catalina swim.

• Surgeon, Faculty of Medicine, UNAM
• Specialization in Medicine of Physical and Sports Activity, National Rehabilitation Center, UNAM
• Undergraduate in Morphofunctional Evaluation, School of Physical Education and Sports Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
• High specialization in Evaluation and Development of Physical and Sports Potential, National Institute of Rehabilitation, UNAM
• Certified by the Mexican Council of Sports Medicine