Legless, Armless Frenchman Swims English Channel

LONDON (Sept. 20) -- It sounds like the opening line of a politically incorrect joke: How did the limbless Frenchman get across the English Channel? But if you put that question to Philippe Croizon, who lost his arms and legs 16 years ago, you'd get a serious and simple answer: flippers, years of training and sheer determination.

The 42-year-old father of two on Saturday became the first quadruple amputee to swim across the English Channel.

"I did it. I'm so happy. I can't believe it. It's crazy," Croizon told French radio after covering the 21 miles from Folkestone in southeastern England to Wissant in northwestern France.

The former metal worker had thought the crossing would take him about 24 hours. But Croizon, using specially designed prostheses, did it in just 13½ hours -- which, until the 1970s, would have counted as one of the fastest channel swims of all time. That speedy time was partly because of favorable winds, gentle seas and, according to his jubilant father, Gerard, the help of three dolphins, which accompanied Croizon for part of the journey. "We took that as a sign of good luck," said Gerard, according to The Guardian.

When he landed in France, Croizon received a phone call from the French minister for families, Nadine Morano, who hailed his "exemplary courage and sporting performance." She added that he had shown his proud nation that "it's possible to overcome your disabilities and have the determination to make your dreams come true."

Croizon is used to defying people's expectations of what a man with no limbs can achieve. In 2007, he set the parachute jump record for a quadruple amputee -- leaping from a plane 16,000 feet high with an instructor. Croizon decided to undertake these daredevil challenges after suffering a massive electric shock in 1994. Some 20,000 volts were sent coursing through his body when a TV aerial he was adjusting on the roof of his house accidentally touched a nearby power line.

Medics were forced to amputate his severely burned limbs. But as Croizon lay in the hospital, he saw a documentary about an Englishwoman who had swum the Channel. "Two solutions were offered to me [after the accident]: to die or decide to live," he told The Independent earlier this month. "I chose to rebuild myself. I watched that documentary and thought, 'Why not me?' "

Croizon spent two years preparing for his latest adventure, swimming 35 hours a week in a pool near his home in central France. He can hit an average speed of around two miles per hour thanks to the prosthetics and flippers that help him power through the water and attachments at the end of his arm stumps that allow him to steer.

"When I first met him in September 2008, he couldn't even do two lengths," his coach, Valerie Carbonel, told The Independent. "He had no endurance; his prosthetics didn't propel him at all." After two years of intense training, though, Croizon last month completed his first true seawater endurance, swimming across an eight-mile-wide stretch of the Loire estuary in five hours, one hour faster than predicted.

Croizon hopes that his channel crossing will help other people facing seemingly insurmountable challenges realize that they can achieve the impossible. "I've done this for myself, for my family, and for all those who have suffered tragedy and lost their taste for life," he said, according to The Guardian. "[This swim] is a symbol of overcoming your limits."