On 4 July 2006, Walliams
successfully swam the English Channel to raise money for
Sport
Relief.
He successfully completed the
swim in 10 hours and 34 minutes to cover the 35 km (22 miles) stretch of sea,
the equivalent of 700 lengths of an Olympic standard swimming pool. This placed
his effort within the top 50 recorded times for an unaided Channel crossing, in
the process of which he raised over £1,000,000 in donations.
It
took nine months of training to prepare for the swim. The training had to
coincide with Walliams' and Lucas's Little Britain tour so every morning before
performing he had to complete several hours of training before performing on
stage in the evening, a schedule worthy of a professional sportsman. Walliams
first swam from Portsmouth to the Isle Of Wight in around 2 hours and he also
completed an eight hour swim off the coast of Croatia before embarking on the
cross-channel attempt. Walliams has insisted that prior to his challenge he had
never seriously taken part in any sport.
David sold his gear he used during his Super Swim on eBay and all money raised
went straight to Sport Relief. But why swim the Channel?
David Walliams likes swimming,
always has. He spends an hour in the pool several times a week and enjoys the
solitude of being in the water.
But he doesn’t like it that
much – not enough to swim 20-odd miles across the cold tides of the world’s
busiest shipping lane anyway. No, the reason he did this beast of a
challenge is because he wants to raise boat loads of cash for Sport Relief.
In
late-July 2006, Walliams was considered one of two favourites to win the BBC
Sports Personality of the Year award for this considerable physical achievement.
David Walliams
successfully completed the 21-mile swim across the English Channel
to France on Tuesday 4 July 2006 in 10.5 hours and raised £1,000,000
for Sport Relief.
He spent 10 months of
exhausting training for the attempt with former Olympic modern
pentathlete Greg Whyte.
During the crossing, he
had to swim through shoals of jellyfish, and cope with water
temperatures as low as 15C.
Whyte described
swimming the channel as "one of the toughest physical challenges on
the planet".
Fewer than 10% of
people who have attempted to swim the Channel have succeeded.
The famous stretch of
water is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, with 600 tankers
and 200 ferries crossing it every day.
It
took nine months of training to prepare for the swim. The training had to
coincide with Walliams' and Lucas's Little Britain tour so every morning before
performing he had to complete several hours of training before performing on
stage in the evening, a schedule worthy of a professional sportsman. Walliams
first swam from Portsmouth to the Isle Of Wight in around 2 hours and he also
completed an eight hour swim off the coast of Croatia before embarking on the
cross-channel attempt. Walliams has insisted that prior to his challenge he had
never seriously taken part in any sport.