2024-08-20 04:09:38
An hour before the swimmer Petar Stoychev arrived in Japan for the last marathon of the Oceans Seven series, there was an earthquake 7.1 on the Richter scale and there was a typhoon. A tsunami was also expected.
“Japan was a very surprising trip. The distance there should be 20 km, but because of the strong currents we started from a fishing village which is 10 km further. The first half of the distance took us 3 hours and 10-15 minutes, but the second half took us twice as long – 6 hours and 25 minutes,” Stoychev told BBC.
During the flight it started with the captain, who was Hungarian. They talked about the Olympic Games in Paris, and he learned from the captain that there is currently a typhoon in Japan.
Stoychev swam for about 9 hours. Then it took another two hours for the boat to return to port and another two for him to return to the hotel. At the start of his swim, it was raining.
In the sea, Stoychev swims in a simple textile swimsuit, which does not protect against the cold water. There is also a small red light attached to his swimsuit that helps the swimmer be seen in the dark. He also anoints his body with special ointments that keep his skin from chafing in the salt water.
Next week, Stoychev will travel to England to swim the English Channel for the third time. If he does, he will be the first person in the world to swim all the Oceans Seven marathons in less than half a year. He last swam the English Channel in 2007, when he also set a world record.
The seven marathons have a total length of about 200 km. The swimmer explained that while he was engaged in Olympic swimming, he covered 100-110 km per week in a pool, so he has enough training.
I believe that our swimmers in Los Angeles will not be four, but more, and that the moment is not far when Bulgaria will again have a medal from the Olympic Games, said Stoychev.
A deep bow for the gold medals in wrestling and Carlos Nassar, the beauty of rhythmic gymnastics, the strength of Bulgarian women in taekwondo, he said.