Paralympic gold medallist Alice Tai has added another amazing achievement to her already impressive CV, Completing a swim of the ever so unpredictable English Channel.
We spoke to her about the challenge and her preparations for next year’s Games in Paris.
We spoke to her about the challenge and her preparations for next year’s Games in Paris.
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00:00 Alice Tai who won gold at the 2016 Rio Games and most recently gold at the
00:07 Paris Swimming World Series in France has joined those who have swam the
00:11 English Channel including the likes of Matthew Webb back in 1875 and more
00:16 recently comedian David Walliams. What we did as a team you know when when
00:22 Optimum Nutrition came to me at the very start and they were like how about we do
00:27 a channel swim and we get you a team of amateur swimmers like we'll include
00:31 non-swimmers just any ability we want to really get people like finding more and
00:36 pushing themselves. I was kind of like honestly a little bit skeptical I was
00:41 like there's this is such an insane challenge but now on the other side and
00:46 seeing the progress that my teammates have made and the fact that we literally
00:50 like swam the channel this time a couple days ago we just swam the channel um is
00:56 is mind-blowing and I'm so proud of everyone. Alice has teamed up with
01:00 Optimum Nutrition and Professor Greg White who previously helped Walliams to
01:05 swim the channel. The Paralympic athlete was joined by five novice sea swimmers
01:10 all of whom had no formal sea swimming experience and one having never swam
01:15 before to help her in the challenge. This involved a five-month transformation
01:21 ahead of the 21 mile relay which saw the participants spending up to 18 hours a
01:26 day in the water at just 8 degrees Celsius. Greg White the guy that was
01:31 coaching everyone said that it is a life-changing experience and I really
01:35 after having done it it really has been life-changing. I'm well adapted to the
01:40 pool so the sea was a whole new challenge but yeah half the five months
01:45 ago she couldn't swim and now she can say that she's conquered the channel
01:51 with the rest of our team and that that's insane you know every time
01:55 someone jumps in the water every single person on that team had a story and that
01:59 was part of the selection process you know we wanted people who had stories
02:03 who had like reason and motivation to be there who would really put in a hundred
02:08 and ten percent and it really rubbed off you know. Another fantastic challenge
02:13 ticked off for Alice as she and her team completed the swim of the English
02:17 Channel with Paris on the horizon what are her hopes for the upcoming games and
02:22 how is she preparing to head to France? So I've got to kind of readjust to the
02:28 elite athlete like lifestyle I guess as opposed to training for the channel yeah
02:34 Paralympics next year my main goal I've still not got Paralympic individual gold
02:38 so I'd really quite like to to achieve that so that's probably what I'm focused
02:45 on the most right now. As preparations are well into motion for the majority of
02:51 Olympic and Paralympic athletes Alice can use the physical and mental benefits
02:56 of this challenge to help her and she goes on the hunt for her first singles
03:00 Paralympic gold medal next year