Sixty-seven year old becomes oldest French woman to swim the Channel

A 67-year-old university lecturer from Le Mans (Sarthe, Pays de la Loire) has become the oldest Frenchwoman ever to swim the Channel.

Salima Bouayad Agha set off from Dover in the early hours of Saturday, October 3 and waded ashore at Sangatte, near Calais (Pas-de-Calais), just under 15 hours later.

She completed the crossing under traditional Channel swimming rules, relying on a swimsuit, cap, earplugs and a coating of grease against the cold, with no wetsuit or fins.

The feat also makes her the second-oldest woman in the world to have swum the Channel after Linda Ashmore (UK, born in 1946) who made the swim aged 71 years 305 days, on 21 August 2018.

Jellyfish, ferries and seasickness

Ms Bouayad Agha, a former member of Algeria's national swimming team, entered the water at around 03:45 French time.

Accompanying her on the support boat, aptly named High Hopes, were a pilot, co-pilot and an official observer from the Channel swimming federation, along with an English friend and a professional swim support assistant.

Although the pilot had promised her calm conditions, she had to contend with waves, strong currents, seasickness, stomach pains, passing ferries and even a collision with a floating pallet.

The jellyfish she had been dreading did keep her company for part of the way, but none of them stung her.

"It wasn't easy for me, as I'm still a pool swimmer at heart, and the sun didn't come out," she told Ouest-France. "But I was lucky not to have to swim for long in the dark, and I got to see a beautiful sunrise."

She said she kept her coach's advice in mind throughout: never look back at the English coast, and do not fix your eyes on the French one as it comes into view. She also recalled him warning her that giving up would take only a moment, but that she would regret it for the rest of her life.

After nearly 15 hours of swimming, she finally reached the beach at Sangatte, beneath Cap Blanc-Nez, as the sun was setting.

Three false starts

The hardest part, she said, was the waiting. Her swim was originally scheduled for a window between September 4 and 8, and she travelled to Dover on August 30 with her brother, who had flown in from Canada, her sister and her husband.

Under Channel swimming rules, the decision on when to go rests with the boat pilot. 

Unfavourable weather forced him to call off the first window, and a second slot pencilled in for September 14 was scrapped two days beforehand when the wind changed direction.

A further opportunity arose a few days later, only to be cancelled four hours before she was due to start.

Channel swimmers book slots with pilots years in advance, so Ms Bouayad Agha feared that if she missed out this season she would not be a priority again until 2029.

She contacted the pilot once more and was offered Saturday, October 3. The final green light came late on Friday evening, which also happened to be her birthday.

Below is a video (in French) of Ms Bouayad Agha introducing herself and her project: 

Three years of training

Ms Bouayad Agha, who lectures in economics at Le Mans University in the Sarthe department, spent three years preparing for the 34km crossing.

She trained in the pool several times a week and paid close attention to her diet. Speaking to local newspaper Le Maine Libre over the summer, she said the Channel had taken over her whole life, from what she ate to how she slept.

She swam in memory of her late mother, raising funds for the charity France Parkinson, which supports people with the disease and funds medical research.

Heart surgery just months before

Once on dry land, she revealed that she had undergone heart surgery in June, only four months before the swim.

She used the moment to urge others to look after their health. "Go and see your cardiologist for regular check-ups," she said.

Ms Bouayad Agha will talk about her Channel crossing at the Savourez votre retraite (Enjoy your retirement) fair at the Parc des Expositions in Le Mans, on Saturday, October 24.

Read also: ‘I hit rock bottom, learned to swim and then swam the Channel