Salvatore Cimmino is a fresh-faced 47-year-old born in Torre Annunziata near Naples, married, father of a 12-year old son, who talks modestly about his swimming feats, which include crossing the English Channel, the Straits of Gibraltar and the Straits of Messina. He talks with passion about the bridges he is aiming to build.
Swimming in the Seas of the Globe
“Swimming in the Seas of the Globe” is the latest initiative by Salvatore Cimmino dedicated to increasing public awareness about the day-to-day difficulties faced by the disabled and to widening availability of the best prosthetic aids.
The marathon swim in Lake Kivu, from Kiumba on Idjwi Island to Goma, will be the ninth leg of Cimmino's round-the-world swim, and his aim is to improve the lives of children and adolescents in Goma, mutilated by what he describes as “imported wars”.
Cimmino, along with the Bishop of Goma, has involved MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) together with the Italian defence technology supplier Selex Galileo (actually, his regular employer), to promote projects for the improvement of prosthetic limbs and especially to make the state-of- the-art technology economically available to many thousands of amputees and disabled people living in areas where resources for health are minimal, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo .
The previous events in Cimmino's swim round the globe have been:
- Israel: the length of Lake Tiberias (17 km.);
- Italy - Slovenia: 21 km. between Trieste (Italy) and Koper (Slovenia);
- Argentina, where he took part in the Santa Fé – Coronda Marathon;
- Mexico: 15 km in the Summidero Canyon;
- Vancouver, Canada – 20 km in cold water from Oak Bay to Person College (local Headquarters of the United World College);
- New Zealand – crossing of the Cook Strait, in a swim organized by New Zealand marathon swimmer Philip Rush, performed for the first time by any athlete in the cold New Zealand spring (October, with water temperature at most about 7° C).
Forthcoming events in his “tour” are:
7. Australia : January 2012 - 20 km. in Brisbane Bay
8. USA : June 2012, participation in the Manhattan Island Swimming Marathon (46 muddy km. round Manhattan).
The ninth leg will be in the Republic of Congo, some time in 2012.
Salvatore Cimmino's Story
Salvatore Cimmino's open-water swimming achievements are notable by themselves. They become exceptional when one learns that his right leg had to be amputated at mid-thigh because of an osteosarcoma, when he was 15 years old.
Until the age of 40, Salvatore did not swim at all. Only then did doctors suggest he should swim to improve his physical condition. In 2006, 8 months after starting to swim, he covered 22 km. between Naples and Capri. And from there, he has never looked back.
He is trained by Filippo Tassara, a former swimmer, water-polo player, and now a professor in Sports Science at Genoa University, as well as manager in the Italian national swimming team.
He swims with the colours of the Circolo Canottieri Aniene 1892, but he swims above all with the colours of the disabled, to build bridges over the gap between those disabled and a fully normal existence. He swims for "a world without barriers and without borders". His example is a beacon for the disabled, and he has been feted around the world for his example and his achievements.
Sources:
RAI TV "Alle falde del Kilimangiaro" (Jan. 1, 2012)
Circolo Canottieri Aniene 1892
Valerie Wilson - Valerie Wilson has lived, studied and worked in Scotland, Germany and Italy; mainly employed in multi-national companies in shipping ...
Join the Conversation