Otto Thaning

South African Dr Otto Thaning ,
The Oldest person To Ever swim the English channel at 73 

A 73-year-old South African heart surgeon has become the oldest person to swim the English Channel. Otto Thaning said he had wanted to show what older people are capable of if they look after themselves.He took the title from Australian Cyril Baldock, who only last month swam the channel three months shy of his 71st birthday

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Mr Thaning, who first swam the channel in 1994, said the temperature of the water was the biggest problem.
Otto Thaning: "I was absolutely exhilarated to the the point of tears"
He said he had suffered cramp in his feet early on in the swim.
"My wish was basically to promote the idea that people over the age of 70 can do things like this if they look after themselves and work hard," he said.

"The biggest problem is to maintain one's core temperature because the water is cold. We averaged 18C (64F), and that was particularly helpful to me because that's reasonably warm for the channel. The channel is usually a little bit colder at this time of year

South African Dr Otto Thaning , The Oldest person To Ever swim the English channel at 73 ,
hear a lovely interview with Otto after his land mark channel swim last week .., in this short interview Dr Thaning gives great detail into his record breaking 12 hours 52 minutes to become the oldest Channel swimmer at the age of 73. well done again from us all Otto on an amazing swim ..Big Ricks Swim Team (click the arrow in the picture above to hear Otto)