They faced and conquered the “Everest of the seas” in the middle of winter. Four swimmers, two women and two men, took turns for 16 hours and 27 minutes to cross the Channel without wetsuits, wearing nothing but their determination. “We talk about the Everest of swimming, a dream for many open water swimmers. We went, like to the top of the Himalayas, where it’s cold and there’s a lack of oxygen,” Frédéric Taillandier smiles today.
The swimmer, living in Rouans, in Loire-Atlantique, embarked on this crossing with his neighbor from Nantes, the Franco-Luxembourger Kevin Audouy, as well as the Mexican Arleen Gonzalez and the Welshwoman Makala Jones, under the colors of the Swim for the Planet association that he created. One hour of swimming, three hours of rest, before returning to the water. This is a first for a mixed team of four people.
The water temperature fluctuates between 7 and 9°C. Given the sea conditions, there’s no time to get your neck wet. “We are told gowe jump in the water and we go,” says the swimmer. A few days later, he relives these extreme moments. “During immersion, we have a kind of sensory invasion, as if the skin were penetrated by thousands of needles. It lasts five minutes. We focus on our swimming, we escape the pain by focusing on more pleasant things. »
But the Channel is far from being a long, quiet river. At the coasts, the sea forms. “In those moments, the only goal is to bring your arm back, push the water back and start again. It’s a battle with the sea.” And then the hour passes. And another challenge begins: getting out of the water and warming up as quickly as possible.
Out of the water, the temperature continues to drop
“And guardian angel takes care of us. He helps us walk as best we can towards the cabin. We dry off, get dressed quickly – pants, socks, hat, jacket – and then we move into the warmest place and drink tea or herbal tea. »And we start to shake.
“When swimmers exit the water, body temperature continues to drop for forty to fifty minutes. This is a phenomenon calledafterdrop », explains Benoît Mauvieux, lecturer at the faculty of sports sciences at the University of Caen-Normandie. “To combat the cold, the blood is withdrawn from the surface of the body to concentrate around the vital organs. When it circulates again at the skin level, it cools. »
The researcher closely followed the crossing of the four swimmers, which he covered with sensors. “These extreme competition protocols allow us, over a very short time, to record exacerbated physiological and behavioral responses. The body must adapt extremely quickly, well beyond what it does on a daily basis. »
The objective was also to observe how the athletes were able to recover and recreate heat before taking up a new stint. “We will compare the data, refine the mathematical model, try to determine breaking temperatures or swimming duration thresholds. » This work will serve to improve the future performance of swimmers, but also to help all populations exposed to the cold, from shipwreck victims to the homeless.
