Man Without Arms And Legs Swims Around The World

Man Without Arms And Legs Swims Around The World

A limbless Frenchman planning a journey of making a challenging swim around the world finally got his epic wish which started on Thursday after sorting out paperwork problems in Papua New Guinea.

Philippe Croizon, who lost both his arms and legs in an electrical accident in 1994, braved the waters in the Pacific country's remote west at 6am (2000 GMT Wednesday) on his way to Indonesia's Papua province.

It was delayed for several days in getting official permission for the 20-25 kilometre (12.4-15.5 miles) swim to Pasar Skow village, near Mabo.

"He's in the water now and feeling very good," his spokesman Robert Iseni, who is travelling on the support vessel, told AFP.

"We finally got the permission on Wednesday and he is very, very happy. The conditions are good, there is no wind and he is going slowly but surely."

The epic swim, which started from Wutung in PNG and represents the crossing between Oceania and Asia, is expected to take six to seven hours.

Croizon, who swam the English Channel in 2010, hopes to make four swims over the next few months; joining Oceania and Asia, Africa and Asia, Europe and Africa, and Asia to America.

He expects to cover about 85 kilometres in total, which means that he will be in the ocean for about 45 hours, facing poisonous jellyfish, sharks, cargo ships and icy currents.

Croizon's life changed dramatically in 1994 when doctors were forced to cut off his limbs after he was hit by a 20,000-volt charge.  His life ambition was changed when, while he was recovering in hospital, he saw a documentary about a Channel swimmer on television.

Croizon used special artificial limbs with flippers to cross the English Channel and is being joined in by Arnaud Chassery, an able-bodied long-distance swimming champion.

If everything goes well, the two swimmers will make their second swim in the Gulf of Aqaba from Jordan to the Egyptian coast and follow that by swimming from Africa to Europe across the Strait of Gibraltar.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Friday May 18 2012, 3:25 AM EDT. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0