Brisbane teenager swims across English Channel
Twice!
Posted on 12.07.2019
A Brisbane teenager has become the second-youngest person to swim the English Channel twice in one day, swimming 68 kilometres in 22 hours to make it happen.
Brianna Thompson, 17, lost a layer of her tongue and suffered from severe leg cramps and jellyfish stings in the swim from England to France and back — a feat of endurance only achieved by 20 others.
Her Sunshine Coast-based training partner, Sam Penny, said Brianna also had a swollen throat and faced the constant threat of hypothermia from swimming in the 16-degree Celsius water.
She finished the swim at Samphire Hoe, near the English town of Dover, about 11:35am on Wednesday.
In a statement, Ms Thompson said the worst part had been the “jellyfish stings and massive piles of floating seaweed”.
“When you are swimming for hours, these things give you a big fright,” she said.
“The jellyfish hurt for ages. They really aren’t fun.”
She said despite being back on dry land, she was too sore to sleep or sit in a chair.
“I’m in agony,” she said.
“It will be days before I can lift my arms above my head.”
Key points:
- Brianna Thompson took 22.5 hours to swim from England to France and back
- The 17-year-old says jellyfish stings were one of the worst parts of the endurance swim
- She cannot eat food for three days because the saltwater stripped a layer off her tongue
“People try every year to do the double crossing and can you believe a 17-year-old training on the Sunshine Coast absolutely smashed it?”
Source
Kathy Sundstrom and Robert Blackmore
ABC News
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