Is it possible to swim across the atlantic

Hooper followed a month later. When we met, I asked him why he decided to swim across the Atlantic, and why he might try again. But, later in our conversation, a more complicated motivation emerged.

In , a car crash that brought to a halt his police career sparked a period of depression, and in , following a series of personal setbacks that would result in an affair and the breakdown of a long-term relationship, the illness returned.

He was finding it difficult to sleep. Eating became an effort. Recognising the decline, Hooper sought an activity through which he could renew his focus and, recalling an early childhood ambition to swim across an ocean, he landed on the idea of a transatlantic expedition.

Am I capable of achieving more and not killing myself? Transatlantic swimming has a colourful history. In a year-old Frenchman, Guy Delage , washed up on a beach in Barbados, claiming to be the first person to have done the crossing. Delage had spent 55 days at sea and covered 2, miles.

He, too, was tracked by a shark — this time for five days — and he too declared himself the first person to cross the Atlantic. Both swims were celebrated around the world. But after each attempt, questions began to surface about their credibility.

In the aftermath of the Delage swim, experts noted that the raft on to which the Frenchman clung must have been equipped with a kind of sail, thus making it impossible to know exactly how much of the trip was human-powered. Following the Lecomte swim, reporters noted that because he ate and slept onboard a support boat, which drifted with favourable currents overnight, it was equally difficult to work out exactly how much of the distance he had actually swum.

Lecomte mostly escaped criticism. In making the crossing, he raised significant sums for charity. He is now planning to swim across the Pacific. Before setting out for Barbados from the Cape Verde Islands, the swimmer had signed an exclusivity agreement with a TV channel, guaranteeing an important windfall.

Delage, it turned out, was broke. His motivation had not been human achievement, as many people believed, but money, and when the information was revealed by the press he was roundly ridiculed. While Hooper was out in the Atlantic, questions about the legitimacy of his attempt began to surface on a popular marathon swimming forum. Hoping to satisfy potential naysayers, Hooper had promised total expedition transparency.

But as the attempt wore on, onlookers began to bemoan the lack of hard data being shared with the public. NBA experts: Which early-season surprises are here to stay? Charlotte Hornets. LeBron James among the stars boarding the Paolo Banchero hype train. Duke Blue Devils. Baylor's Oklahoma test, Purdue's upset chances at Ohio State and more to watch in Week 11's biggest games. Florida State Seminoles. Cam Newton gives Carolina Panthers hope, even if he's no longer 'Superman'.

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It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news. Hilary Brueck. Every day, Lecomte wakes up around 6 a. He starts off with a hot bowl of oatmeal that's "loaded with nuts and dried fruit," he said. Lecomte is a little over a fifth of the way through his journey. Swimming eight or nine hours per day makes Lecomte so hungry that he usually wakes up three or four times each night to nosh.

He takes a break about every two or three hours to drink water and eat soup and bread. He trained for six years before undertaking the swim in memory of his father who died of colon cancer in , and to raise money for the Scottish-based charity, the Association for International Cancer Research. Mr Lecomte, who has to eat for four hours every day to replace more than 9, calories burned while swimming, has battled through force eight storms, knot winds and ft waves, in addition to tackling sea turtles, dolphins, jellyfish and incredibly cold water on the way to a place in the record books.

Lecomte: Faced sharks, storms and 20ft waves But some critics have been disparaging about Mr Lecomte's attempt, because he has spent up to 18 hours a day sleeping and eating in his support boat Ms Turner said: "This is not about amazing physical feats or records for Ben.