An endurance athlete from the UK has become a living example of the phrase – ‘Age is Just a Number’. Two years back when the COVID-19 virus was slowly engulfing the world, a 50-year-old man was testing his strength in a completely different context. In January 2020, Lewis Pugh, a British-South African swimmer from Plymouth shocked people when he swam beneath the freezing ice sheet of Antarctica. In the spine-chilling cold Pugh dove into a river, that had a layer frozen into a thin ice sheet. The swimmer had no extra cushioning except a speedo, his hair cap, and swimming goggles.

With this, Pugh became the first person on the planet to perform the extraordinary stunt. However, the motivation behind his effort was to warn people and educate them about a larger cause. 

The swimmer revealed the reason behind his heroics

The 50-year-old revealed that the motivation behind his heroic deed wasn’t to grab the media limelight but to raise awareness about climate change. He evidently proved the rapid melting of ice into rivers, by swimming into one. “It’s vast. It’s beautiful. But everywhere we look we are seeing meltwater”, said Pugh, according to the New York Post

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Pugh further took the audience into the journey of his swim as he saw different shades of water. While many people think that Antarctica is covered with a thick sheet of white ice, Pugh revealed that there are distinct shades of blue. “It was every shade of blue. It started turquoise, and then I swam around a corner and it was royal blue,” he said. “And then it turned to indigo, and then a psychedelic blue, and finally violet.”, Pugh added.

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The long list of  great achievements in Pugh’s swimming career

Pugh has been engaging in awareness programs for a long time. The 50-year-old swimmer has visited different parts of the world, advocating for oceans. This was indeed a special swim for him. He was not only mesmerized by the serene beauty of the South Pole, but the swim also made him the first-ever person to swim in a glacial water body.

The champion swimmer has been working towards his goals most of his life. It would indeed be crucial to see how his deeds can impact the future of our oceans. What do you think of the environmentalist’s super stunt? 

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