Click photo to enlarge
Former Dunedin man Dr Stanley Paris (70) trains at Moana
Pool in April in preparation for his attempt to become the
oldest person to swim the English Channel. Photo by Peter
McIntosh.
With less than a week to go before he plunges into the
pre-dawn water off Dover in a bid to become the oldest man to
swim the English Channel, Dr Stanley Paris (70), formerly of
Dunedin, is spending most of his time on land.
He is mainly resting, relaxing and focusing on the challenge,
spending only about an hour swimming each day, hoping to
improve his body's ability to cope with cold water.
He will be close to his 71st birthday when he makes his
attempt on the record, set in 2004 by a man who was 70 years
and four days old.
Dr Paris, a physiotherapist with a world reputation in
orthopaedic physical therapy, now living in Florida, has been
training for the July 26 swim since last August.
An Otago representative swimmer in his youth, he has an
unusual swimming style - his legs trail while his arms do all
the work.
One of his training tasks was putting on weight, needing to
increase his body fat to help combat the cold.
He also practised raising his basic metabolic rate, by not
wearing more clothing than he needed, sleeping outside the
bed covers and trying to spend time in cold water.
In January, this led to lobar pneumonia and he lost three
weeks of swimming training.
In recent email correspondence he continues to be concerned
about the cold on the swim, but completed the compulsory
six-hour qualifying swim in windy conditions in early July.
He hopes the water will warm from its current 14.4degC to
16.6degC, the same temperature it was when he swam the
channel in 1986, on his third attempt, at the age of 49.
His time for his successful swim was 12hr 59min and he hopes
this week's attempt will take about 15 hours.
During the build-up this month, Dr Paris met old friend,
Allison Streeter, the "queen" of the channel, who has swum it
43 times.
He asked her what she thought about during her swims and she
told him "after the second hour, nothing".
Dr Paris said he wished he could consciously think of
nothing, as he had run out of things to think about.
During his training he overcame boredom by listening to
music, including Tina Turner's You're Simply the Best - "I
have to believe that", he said.
Musical gadgetry, however, will not be allowed on the
crossing.
There are strict rules about officially recognised channel
swims.
Swimming costumes must be sleeveless and legless and caps and
costumes are not allowed to offer thermal protection or
buoyancy.
The only buffer against the cold is the application of
grease, which Dr Paris will apply liberally and hope it stays
in place for the 37km swim.
