Taiganidis dared the impossible…

The Paralympic swimming gold medalist became the first athlete to swim 250 kilometers in the ocean, even with a visual impairment.

THE Charalambos Taiganidis after he had already distinguished himself at the pan-Hellenic level, in 2003 he learned that he suffers from a serious eye disease, which degenerates vision, gradually diminishes it and causes retinal nerves to atrophy. The condition of his vision therefore forced him to jump to the S13 category of visually impaired swimmers.

However, some years ago the 42-year-old swimmer stated that he has a particular phobia of water and that he is literally afraid to enter the deep sea. This has been the case since his childhood, but when his vision impairment appeared, he felt it was time to face his fear head-on. It was time to swim her.

So a few months ago, he turned his fear into strength and swam 50 kilometers in the open ocean from Rose up to Symi. Until the 1st arrived^the November and started the project of 250 km swimming in the open sea, from Souda Chania with destination Sitia.

“The walls you build around yourself to protect yourself and not get hurt are also the ones that imprison you many times. In our life we ​​have to be patient. Life is a marathon and to win the race we need to equip ourselves with patience and cultivate our endurance“, are some of the thoughts that the four-time Paralympic gold medalist wanted to share shortly before completing his personal feat.

A feat that began on 1^the November and today the 9th of the month, shortly after midday at the port of Sitia, it hopefully came to an end. “Dare the impossible!“, he shouted proudly as he swam the last meters of his sea journey.We are much stronger and more resilient than we think. In circumstances of our life where we will need strength, it will be revealed to us. We can manage and endure everything that happens to us in life, no matter how much we don’t believe it. Invest your energy in believing in your abilities, not in constantly doubting them“, noted the 42-year-old, putting into words what he does every day, being a living example of physical and mental strength.

His advice is perfectly clear and reflects his own attitude to life: “Never look back. You only look ahead, where you want to go. Look back only when you want to remind yourself of how far you’ve come towards fulfilling your goals and progressing. If you want to be strong, you must first face difficulties in your life. These will make you strong or remind you that you were already strong, you just didn’t realize it because you didn’t have to use that power».

As he mentioned in his public post, he drew strength from the love and messages of support he received throughout the project, which is under the auspices of the Hellenic Paralympic Committee.In every hand and in every measure I receive this power and that is why I keep the hope that this effort of mine will make everyone believe that everything, even those that seem impossible can be done, as long as they want it and believe in the power they have within themselves“.//A.M