By braving some of the most forbidding waters on the planet, Lewis Pugh uses his unique brand of ‘Speedo diplomacy’ to draw the attention of the world’s leaders to the devastating effects of global warming
Sun 15 Jan 2023 11.00 GMTewis Pugh typically starts to plan his next extreme-swimming challenge after just enough time has passed for him to have forgotten how deeply unpleasant the last one was. He opens his atlas – I know! An atlas! – and turns the pages until he finds a body of water that captures his imagination.
‘When you’ve been really, really cold, it’s deep in your bones. You remember it’: Lewis Pugh, above and, left, swimming with king penguins in South Georgia.Finding compelling stories is becoming harder and harder. For one thing, Pugh and two other endurance swimmers – the American Lynne Cox and the Slovenian Martin Strel – have now checked off all of the eye-catching landmarks. Strel specialised in rivers, swimming the length of the Danube, Yangtze and Amazon.
Pugh’s first serious swim, in fact, was five miles from the mainland to Robben Island and back, when he was 17. “I was a young kid, as thin as you can imagine,” says Pugh. “And I barely made that swim, I was so cold.” But he was proud of what he’d achieved and became a lifeguard, not for the faint-hearted in waters where great white sharks were regular visitors .
I remember first hearing about Pugh in 2007, when he swam 1km across an open patch of sea at the North Pole, in just under 19 minutes. What he was doing seemed barmy, or at least highly eccentric. Now, of course, it’s hard to find anyone who isn’t evangelical about wild swimming. I ask what he makes of Wim Hof, the Dutch motivational speaker known as the Iceman. “I’ve never met him,” replies Pugh.
How does his wife, Antoinette, feel? “It’s challenging,” he replies, choosing his words carefully. Pugh also has two grownup stepchildren. Does his family ever come on the swims? “My wife’s been on some of the swims, yes. She was on that Ross Sea swim, where it was so dangerous. I wanted her there for support and because it’s a long journey. It takes about six weeks on a boat.
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Extreme swimmer Lewis Pugh: ‘The polar regions are the ground zero of the climate crisis’By braving some of the most forbidding waters on the planet, Lewis Pugh uses his unique brand of ‘Speedo diplomacy’ to draw the attention of the world’s leaders to the devastating effects of global warming
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