World Record: US Cancer Survivor Swims The English Channel Four Times Non-Stop
Source: DW
Sarah Thomas completed the feat in just over 54 hours. The 37-year-old endurance swimmer underwent treatment for breast cancer in 2018. The open water marathon swimmer from Colorado finished a swim of around 130 miles (210 kilometers) on Tuesday morning near Dover, the largest English Channel port between Britain and France.
"I just can't believe we did it," said Thomas in an interview with the BBC. "I'm really just pretty numb." Thomas is the first to cross the English Channel four times consecutively. Four swimmers had previously managed to cross it three times without stopping.
Fellow endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh wrote in a congratulation post on Twitter, "Just when we think we've reached the limit of human endurance, someone shatters the records."
During the 54-hour swim, Thomas battled strong currents, salt water that left her mouth and throat in pain, and a jelly fish sting to the face. For sustenance, every half hour her team threw her a protein drink tied to a rope... -MORE...
Read more: https://www.dw.com/en/world-record-us-cancer-survivor-swims-the-english-channel-four-times-non-stop/a-50462315
In August, 2017 the athlete set a record for completing an unprecedented 104.6-mile non-stop solo swim in Lake Champlain on the U.S.-Canada border. Four months later, Thomas was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer.
She said, "I was at the peak of my athletic accomplishments...and then I got diagnosed with cancer," "I just hope it never comes back but if it does, to know that I did everything I wanted to do in life." Last year she underwent treatment for the disease, which had already begun to spread.
Thomas dedicated the swim to all cancer survivors in a post on social media prior to the swim.
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