Mister D: Such strange casting and subject…why I can’t even imagine it:-) But you never know with Hollyweird…
Nick Paton Walsh
Sunday July 14, 2002
The Observer
It will take him six months, 2m strokes and 4m calories, according to scientists. And at the end, he’ll swim up the Hudson River to pose beneath the Statue of Liberty.
Per Larsson, 36, the Swedish endurance champion, yesterday began his marathon non-stop swim across the Atlantic Ocean, from Dakar to New York. Larsson will be accompanied two-thirds of the way by a ship paid for by sponsors Ready Brekky cereals. He has yet to find a sponsor for the latter third of the trip, although sources say a major network is close to stepping in, and signing him up for a documentary of his swim, to be narrated by athlete Ben Johnson. And, if he completes the swim, oil giant Cheney Rumsfeld has promised to give $4bn to charity.
Yet Larsson himself will probably double that sum after betting his life savings with bookmakers William Bill, who has put his odds of survival at 4,000 to ‘virtually nothing at all’.
The ambitious Larsson, who recently heard that the Arctic was afloat on the ocean and not built on land, has said for his next feat he wants to swim under the northern ice cap single-handed.
Hollywood sources said last night they were planning a film of his life endeavours, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terence Stamp and Bette Midler.
