Matías Ola had to abandon the crossing of the canal of …

The Argentine swimmer Matías Ola suffered extreme hypothermia while he was trying to cross the English Channel no combination of the port of Dover, UK, Cape Gritz Nez, France.

The athlete, originally from Tucumán, wanted to be the first Argentine to conquer the Triple Crown in open water. After the pbadage of the English Channel, the Catalinas Cbad in California and the return to the island of Manhattan have already been made. in the USA.

"The main problem was that I went into hypothermia"The 34-year-old swimmer acknowledged the physical impossibility of completing the crossing." It's my pbadion, I love it and I hope to reach my goals, "added the athlete who is already dreaming of achieving the feat next year. Also planning is crossing the river of La Plata, between Punta Lara and Colonia, which means swimming 100 kilometers in 35 hours.

The disadvantage was the temperature of the water, which became very cold at night, below what the body could withstand. This seriously affected the swimmer's body, which He began to be disoriented and hurt himself with a lack of coordination.

"The last days became very cold and when we started the crossing, at 6 o'clock in England the water temperature was set at 16.5 degrees, well below our training, "said the recovering swimmer in Dover.

Ola pointed out that the temperature at dusk became very cold and started having "leg problems" and shaking even though he thought "it was a pbading thing" . "I started to get disoriented in the water to the point that I hit the body with the ship where my coach went, they hosted me and hugged me, "he said.

Under the effect of hypothermia, Ola babbled and his captain noticed that he could not understand what the tucumano was saying. It was at that point that they decided to take it out of the water. "From there, I can not remember anything and I woke up at the hotel," said Ola, who tried to travel the 42 kilometers that separate the English city of Dover from the French city of Calais.

His coach, Pablo Testa, confirmed that "Matías was in grade 3 of hypothermia – which is very high – and asked me not to give up, that impressed me." "We are calmer, it sounds a bit ugly, but it leaves us an excellent teaching," said Testa, adding, "I have spent many years in this field and have seen swimmers giving up in less painful situations "

"I think we had a water temperature between 13.8 and 14 degrees, which means it's very cold to swim more than 7 hours as Matías did", Said Testa. At the time of the test, "there were side winds, I was hot and I had another 7 hours," he said.

"In a moment I realised that He did not open his eyes, he did not want to see the scenario unfolding and he did not understand what he was saying.he counted. Testa expects that they are already planning the crossing for next year, between late July and early August: "He will cross it," he said optimistically.

Ola learned to swim only at the age of 21 and six months later he was already a national federated swimmer, part of the NOA Regional Swimming Team. In addition, in 2013, he decided to create the "Unite the World" foundation, whose goal is to help children who do not have the opportunity to have access to a swimming pool.