Crossing the perilous Bering Strait under your own power is no mean feat – icy waters, massive swells and powerful ocean currents – yet Frenchman Philippe Croizon managed to do it in under two hours. Without arms or legs.
Sounds crazy? It is a little, but for Croizon it was merely the final let of his Intercontinental Straits Swimming Challenge which saw him take on, and conquer, the waterways connecting the continents of Oceania, Asia, Europe, Africa, and America. Swimming in temperatures as low as 4°C, and facing 1,8m – 2,4m swells, the quadruple amputee managed the crossing from Alaska to Russia in roughly one hour and 15 minutes.
“Philippe said it was the hardest thing he ever did, even harder than crossing the English Channel,” Marc Gaviard, coordinator for the expedition, told Reuters.
Croizon set off with long-distance swimmer, Arnaud Chassery, from Alaska’s Little Diomede Island to a spot near Big Diomede Island which marked the Russian maritime border, the swim measured about 4km.
The swim saw him become only the second man to make the crossing since American long-distance swimmer Lynne Cox first completed the crossing in 1987.
18 years ago, when Croizon was 24-years-old and working as an electrical engineer, he suffered 20 000 volt electrical shocks while changing a TV aerial. Numerous surgeries to save his limbs failed and eventually doctors were forced to amputate. He now uses multiple body suits with paddle-like prosthetics to complete his swims.
[Source: Daily Mail]
