25 Jul 07

Lexie Elliott is the first woman who studied at Oxford as an undergraduate to have swum across the Channel. She arrived in France on Thursday, 19 July after swimming for 12.5 hours. The swim, which was only confirmed to take place a few hours beforehand, started at 2am in the morning from Abbott's Cliffs in England.

Lexie studied Physics at University College and completed a DPhil in Theoretical Physics at New College. She now works as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs. The mother of a 16-month-old baby still found time to put in the gruelling training for the event, which included six-hour swims in Dover harbour at weekends.

She said: 'I am so thrilled and relieved to have made it across. The Channel has taken so much time and commitment - not just from me, but also my family, all of whom I thank whole-heartedly for their support.'

The first male Oxford graduate who swam the Channel in a solo effort was Lennard Lee in 2004, who completed the crossing in 9 hours 45 minutes. Anna Hillyer, a graduate student on a Diploma in Education programme, swam the Channel in 17.5 hours.

Oxford swimmers regularly compete with Cambridge in the biennial Inter-Varsity Channel Swim Relay, a mixed team event which was inaugurated in 1998. Lexie was part of the Oxford team in 2000, who are still world record holders for their swim which took 8 hours 18 minutes.