La Coupe du Monde, le Tour de France and now la Grande Baignade de l'Atlantique. Is there no end to French ambition? Today the latest in a long line of eccentric French adventurers, Ben Marie Jean-Paul Lecomte, will pull on a wetsuit and flippers at Cape Cod in Massachusetts, slip into the chilly waters and set off on a 3,395-mile quest to become the first person to swim the Atlantic.
Mr Lecomte, who intends to swim six hours each day in two-hour bursts, is due to arrive in Brest, France, in late September and hopes to hand a cheque for several thousand pounds to the Association for International Cancer Research, based in St Andrew's, Fife, in Scotland. "People think I'm crazy," he said, "but I'm doing it for a good cause."
He decided to take on the Atlantic as a tribute to his father, who died seven years ago at the age of 49 of colon cancer. The association is the only cancer charity which works internationally. "We sponsor research globally not just in the UK," said a spokeswoman. "It seemed appropriate to Ben, I suppose, given his background."
Mr Lecomte, who moved to Texas five years ago from France, will be accompanied by a small boat with a raft attached on which he can rest and sleep under a waterproof plastic sheet. His main problems will not be the actual swimming but the psychological pressure of loneliness and the possibility of being eaten alive by sharks. He will be protected by a new shark protective ocean device which emits an electronic signal to deter unwelcome predators.
His feat is likely to be dismissed by those who keep long-distance swimming records because of the snorkel, wetsuits and aqua-dynamic fin he will be wearing. "I'm not trying to gauge myself with them," Mr Lecomte said. "I am not the best swimmer, either. This is not about physical aptitude. It will be like being in jail having to stare at a blank wall for six to eight hours, but it's something I have to do."