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Monday 20 September 2010

Philippe Croizon's inspirational Channel swim

By any definition, Philippe Croizon is an extraordinary man, and surely and inspiration to us all.

At the weekend he swam the Channel - the 34-kilometre stretch of water separating Britain from France.

Not much special about that perhaps; it has been done many a time.

The difference is that Croizon doesn't have any arms or legs.



The 42-year-old father of two had his limbs amputated after receiving an electrical shock while removing a television aerial from a roof 16 years ago.

It was while he lay in his bed recovering from the final amputation that the idea of swimming the Channel came to him, as he explained on national radio following his exploit at the weekend.

"As I lay there I saw a report on television of a woman who had swum the Channel," he said.

"That's when I said to myself 'Why shouldn't I give that a try?' and here we are 16 years later and it's my turn."

He spoke to the local authorities about his idea and they supported him, gave him the use of the municipal pool and found him a trainer.

"When Valérie (Carbonel, his coach) first told me to get in the water and show her what I could do, I think I must have managed about 25 metres, I was out of breath and I didn't know what to do without arms and legs. It was terrible," he admitted.

"She couldn't believe I was serious about wanting to swim the Channel," he continued.

"But I told her that once I got an idea into my head I was going to see it through to the end."

Croizon had prosthetic legs made with fins attached which would help him move more quickly and over the past two years trained regularly, putting in more than 30 hours a week.

It was a tough schedule that more than paid dividends as not only did he manage to make it from Folkestone in Kent to Cap Gris Nez, he also did it much more quickly than the allotted 24 hours he had given himself; completing the feat in just over 13 hours.

And that in spite of the pain and fatigue that set in during the crossing.

"Somehow even though I was in pain for much of the swim, I profited in a sense from what I had experienced after my accident," he said.

"It might sound bizarre to say that but after losing my limbs I was hospitalised for two years and during that time I had to overcome hurdles to learn how to become independent," he continued.

"And that period in a very real sense helped me in my training. Every time I reached a barrier and I thought I couldn't go on, I went beyond it."

The message Croizon hopes others will learn from what he has done is that a handicap doesn't stop a person from living.

"Of course there's suffering and we have the right to cry when it hurts, but you also have to lift your head up high and live life," he said

"I have a handicap but I didn't want to be dictated to or dominated by it."

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