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Summary A quadruple amputee successfully swam across the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco.
A quadruple amputee successfully swam across the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco Thursday as part of an effort to swim between all the worlds continents.Philippe Croizon, who lost his arms and legs in an electrical accident, has already swum the English Channel as well as between Indonesia and Papua-New Guinea, and between Asia and Africa in the Gulf of Aqaba.Croizon, a French citizen, swims with the aid of prosthetic flippers attached to his leg stumps and a snorkel to breathe through. He made the nine-mile (14-kilometre) crossing from Tarifa, Spain, in just over five hours with a friend, Arnaud Chassery.Croizon said upon his arrival near the city of Tangiers that he is trying to link the continents of the world with his swimming to show we are all together on the same planet.We have proven that an able-bodied person and a handicapped person can link the five continents together by swimming. Weve proven that we are all the same, that there are no differences, whatever the politics, the skin color, the religion or the handicap, Croizon said.The swimmers arms and legs were amputated after he suffered an electric shock in 1994 as he stood on a ladder adjusting his television antenna, which touched a power line.Croizon was greeted by friends and well-wishers, as well as his mother Monique Croizon, and they celebrated by waving French and Moroccan flags on the picturesque beach.The crossing was quite difficult. We had to swim more than Im used to. Im used to long distances but that was a really long distance.There were strong currents, he said. My back was hurting for a while, but I really wanted this and weve completed the third of our swims.Croizon plans a swim across a section of the Bering Straits, which although a shorter distance, is made harder by the near freezing water temperature. He hopes to make that crossing next month, depending on the weather and sea conditions.He added that after crossing the Bering Straits, he will be received by President Barack Obama.
