Video Of The Week - Quadruple Amputee Completes Continent-Linking Swim

In April 2012, French athlete Philippe Croizon announced that he was going to symbolically link the world's five continents by swimming across the series of narrow straits that separates them. While the quest would have been challenging for any able-bodied person, it was even more so for this amazing man given that he is a quadruple amputee which means, he has neither arms nor legs.

However, the 44-year old who made history in 2010 when he became the first quadruple amputee to swim across the English Channel, was not daunted by the challenge. On May 6th, he and his trainer Arnaud Chassery, set off from France and began their first continent link by swimming from Papua New Guinea to Indonesia (symbolically linking Oceania and Asia).

Then it was across the Red Sea between Jordan and Eqypt (Asia to Africa), the 8.9 mile Strait of Gibraltar, that connects Africa to Europe and finally on August 18th, the 2.7 mile stretch between the US island of Little Diomede and Russia's Great Diomede, symbolically connecting Asia and the Americas. This last stretch across the freezing waters of the Bering Strait, which he described as the most difficult one of all, took Philippe an hour and 20 minutes. But, he had done it!

Next up for for this amazing man? Flying to London to cover the Paralympics on radio and television. Just shows that if one puts their mind to it, anything is possible!

Resources: Telegraph.co.uk, BBC.co.uk