Under cloudless summer skies, thousands of competitors plunged into the balmy waters of Balaton on Saturday to swim across Central Europe’s largest freshwater lake.

Lake Baikal is called the "Blue Eye of Siberia," "Sacred Sea" and "Diamond of the Planet" due to its uniqueness and is the largest freshwater lake by volume in the world. It is not only clean and transparent but also contains so few minerals and salts that its water is virtually distilled.