Kiwi swimmer gets Times Square billboard

Kiwi Kimberley Chambers celebrated on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square. Photo / Twitter, ashleykhorne

Long-distance Kiwi swimmer Kim Chambers has been congratulated on the Times Square billboard - perhaps the world's most sought-after piece of advertising real estate.

Last week Chambers, 38, became the first woman to swim the 50km stretch from the Farallon Islands off the United States' west coast to Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

It took Chambers 17 hours in the cold, shark-infested waters to complete the feat.

She endured hundreds of jellyfish stings during a 13-hour successful crossing.

Chambers' achievement was acknowledged on the iconic Times Square Billboard in New York, which showed a picture of her beneath the bridge.

"Congratulations Kim Chambers," it said. "World record breaking swim. Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge."

Four men have completed the swim in the past. The stretch of water is notorious for great white sharks that are attracted to elephant seals on the cluster of islands off the San Francisco coast.

A former ballerina, Chambers took up swimming to rehabilitate from an accident in which she nearly lost a leg.

In 2013 she spoke to the Herald on Sunday about the accident and her other big open-water swims.

Chambers became the sixth person and third woman to complete the Oceans Seven - a collection of marathon swimming challenges, including the Strait of Gibraltar, the Molokai Channel in Hawaii, and the North Channel from northern Ireland to Scotland.