Talk:Benoit Lecomte
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This sounds like a massive accomplishment. Why isn't this guy more famous?
Regarding the suspected typo (and the absentfamousness), please take ocean curents into account when you look at the average speed. Ynh 14:50, 15 August 2005 (UTC)
A comment on the factual accuracy follows. Originally by User:131.156.3.93, moved from the article text here by me. GregorB 17:04, August 23, 2005 (UTC)
- Note that there must be a typo or something here and in the reference below, which states he swam 72 days. Swimming that long at 8 hours per day, a 3736-mile journey would require an average speed of over 6 mph. The world record speed for a single mile is just 4 mph. Perhaps "16-18 hours a day" was intended, although even at that, a sustained 3mph pace is a very good speed.
although you do make a good point for the impossibility of such a feat, here are a few references to back the story: http://www.france-amerique.com/infos/dossier/September11/anniversary6.htm http://www.legendinc.com/Pages/ArchivesCentral/COTDArchives/1998/10198.html http://www.freep.com/news/nw/wswim19_19991119.htm http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/09-98/09-26-98/zzzwnppl.htm http://www.hsilai.org/english/merittimes/detail.asp?index=16396&page=A http://www.ambafrance-us.org/news/statmnts/2002/franceus082802.asp
And they all agree on the facts. He made the swim in 1998 to raise money for cancer research after his father died. He performed the feat in 72 although some say 71 days from Hyannis, Mass., to Quiberon, France. he now lives in Austin Texas. He's also swam across the Chesapeake Bay and alond the atlantic coast between Washington DC and NYC on september 11 2002 an event he called the 'swim for Liberty'
Also, he used a "monofin" which enables swimmers to swim quite a bit faster than traditional swim strokes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/180273.stm
[edit] Time On Your Hands
WOW! I am quite glad to see you have enough free time and raw ambition to muse over swimming speeds and actually go and back yourself up with those websites (BLATANT SARCASM). The truth is the IP adress from the edit is the Pennridge High School of Perkasie, Pennsylvannia network. Me and many other students use and abuse wikipedia from there and also frequently vandalize. You could of just told the kid that he is a frikin idiot and been done with it he'll never see the talk anyway. --Igilli 02:26, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] He SHOULD be more famous
We had a chance to meet and interview Ben Lecomte a few years ago, and he provided us footage taken by his support crew during the marathon swim. We have no reason to doubt his accomplishment, and have alwyas been surprised that he only achieved 15 minutes of fame for it.
Our interview and some of the footage can be seen at walkie-lookie.com [1].
