Thursday, October 1, 2026
When Nevzat Arda Agir was 6, he played basketball and soccer, but swimming emerged as his favorite sport.
Now, two years after emigrating from Türkiye, Arda — who goes by his middle name — became the youngest Turkish swimmer to complete the 20 Bridges Manhattan Island Swim at 16.
20 Bridges is a 28.5-mile circumnavigation of Manhattan. It is one-third of the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming that includes the English Channel and Catalina Channel swims. The Locust Valley High School varsity swimmer — rising junior — has his sights set on completing in all three.
“We are proud of him because of it,” said Merit Agir, Arda’s father.
While Arda was able to continue his regular training in preparation for the 20 Bridges swim, he also added longer ocean swims lasting four to six hours to his regimen.
“20 Bridges was hard because there (were) lots of waves,” Arda said. “The day that I did was a rainy day; (the) waves were (big) and strong. That was hard.” He added that he would swim in the event again.
Arda said that the event that ignited his love for open water swimming was the Bosphorus Cross Continental Swim, a roughly 4-mile swim between Europe and Asia off the coast of Istanbul.
“I looked at other (swims), other challenges,” he said, “and I found 20 Bridges, and I wanted to do it.”
Arda attributes his ability to stay focused during long swims to the amount of practice he does rather than any particular strategy. Sometimes when he gets bored during a long swim, the swimmer said he might sing a song in his head to stay on track.
As he has watched his son complete these swims, Agir said that he thinks Arda enjoys the freedom of being in open water and the difficulty of the distances.
“It’s a big challenge,” Agir said. “No one can do it easily, and you have to never give up. (It’s) not a 50 meter or 100 meter, and I think he liked it.”
Agir added that as a parent, watching Arda at 20 Bridges was its own challenge.
“I was in the boat, and it’s eight hours, 23 minutes,” he said. “And I was always ready to jump (in) the water to take him out. Yeah, it’s not easy, but it’s amazing. I’m proud of my son.”
Arda also participated in this year’s Swim Across America, a charity event where swimmers raise money for cancer research, on Saturday at Prybil Beach in Glen Cove.
Along with his father, mother and sister, Arda moved to the United States in 2023. The decision to relocate following the earthquake that struck Türkiye early that year was primarily Agir’s.
They already had relatives in the United States and had visited often.
“We see how to live in New York and (the) United States,” Agir said. “We prefer to live here, but it’s not easy to change (your) country.”
Now residing in Locust Valley, Arda also swims for the Long Island Express and St. Dominic’s Bayhawks, a Catholic Youth Organization team. Arda said that it was difficult to make friends at first, but as time has passed, it has gotten easier.
“It’s actually going well,” he said. “And I’m happy about it.”
Swimming has also helped Arda make friends in his new home country. Practices have given him the opportunity to meet people and spend time with them consistently.
This year, Arda set a Locust Valley record, swimming the 200-yard individual medley in 2 minutes and 17 seconds at the Nassau County championships in February.
He is set to swim in the English Channel Relay next year on behalf of the United Kingdom The Alexa Trust, a nonprofit that supports parents with babies in neonatal care.
