Lewis Pugh's mind-shifting Everest swim

- Lewis Pugh –

Rating **** Excellent


Have you ever thought about doing something different? Taking the risk to do something new and challenging? Lewis Pugh did. He decided to promote the protection of the environment and also a sport performance. Lewis Pugh, who already swam at the North Pole few years ago, decided to swim across the lake in the summit of the Mount Everest!

In this Ted Talk, Lewis Pugh talks about his expedition “The Everest Swim”. It consists in crossing the lake situated at the summit of Mount Everest. He knew that it was a dangerous expedition because many people had died on Everest, but he did not want to give up. It was a challenging situation: the lake was over 5000 meters in altitude, and the air did contain much less oxygen than he was used to. For his first try to cross the lake, Lewis started swimming aggressively and with all his energy during the first 400 meters. Unfortunately, he had a hard time to breathe, he had problems with his hands, he started to go into shock and vomited in the water. He almost sank but finally reached the side of the lake. Then, he received some advice from his team, he needed to forget everything he had learned about swimming techniques and do a “radical tactical shift” to have a chance to make it. He had to swim as slow as possible instead of going full speed and he should use the breast stroke. He made a second attempt and he achieved it!

Lewis Pugh adds to his speech the lessons he learned during his expedition: 1. If something worked so well in the past, it does not mean it will work in the future. 2. You need to pick the good mind set to achieve your task. I found it really interesting because he goes further in his thoughts about the first lesson. In his discussion on environmental protection, he stated we should not act in a certain way just because people had always done it that way. We have to think about changing our behaviour for the coming generations to have a better future.

I really liked this Ted Talk, which makes me think about pushing the limits and trying things that looks impossible to achieve at first. I was impressed to see what Lewis Pugh did and how he is involved in the protection of the environment. I found really interesting that he talked about the issues we have with the environment and the fact that everyone can make a difference.

I recommended this Ted Talk to anyone who likes to take risks and are interested to learn more about Lewis Pugh’s expeditions and the protection of the environment.



Lewis Pugh's mind-shifting Everest swim. Ted Ideas Worth Spreading. July 2010. Web. 23 April 2012.

<http://www.ted.com/talks/lewis_pugh_s_mind_shifting_mt_everest_swim.html>