Romanian swimmer Mihai Badea has successfully finished his 80-mile (about 130 kilometers) swim challenge for Children in Distress.
Mihai swam the entire 80 miles of Lake Powell in Utah and Arizona in the United States over three days and two nights, a press release from the charity (www.cid.ro) sent to Universul.net said.
The former water polo player and open water swimmer envisioned the swim as an effort to raise funds for construction of Children in Distress’s Pineview Retreat Lodge in Romania, Valentina Zaharia Smith, the president of COD and Rev. Steven Smith, its Missioner said.
the 51-year-old began the swim on Sunday morning and ended Tuesday afternoon, swimming 50 miles (80 kilometers) over 32 hours, including through Sunday night.
In an almost Biblical turn of events, a severe storm swiftly descended and pounded Lake Powell with sheets of rain, thunder, lighting and 4-5 foot waves on Monday evening.
The dramatic episode saw the kayak accompanying Mihai flipped three times, and the gear on the accompanying pontoon was swept away. He and his team took shelter in a canyon, where they waited out the storm for 3 and-a-half hours.
After the storm stopped, he resumed his swim and finished the remaining 30 miles in 19 hours.
Although the sports’ ambassador for the charity successfully completed his goal of 80 miles, “he unfortunately cannot enter the record books because his swim was not continuous,” the communique said.
‘This was a herculean challenge, and Children in Distress is so grateful to Mihai and his team for undertaking this superhuman effort.’
Mihai is known for his marathon swims. He completed the Danube 115, where he swam 115 km downstream in the Danube River from the border to the Iron Gates on 12-13 August 2021 in 36+ hours.
COD are asking people to donate to Mihai for his swim, $7, €6, or £5 for each mile you wish to support. People can choose the number of miles they wish to support.
Details are here: Doneaza – Fundaţia Copii în Dificultate (cid.org.ro).
Children in Distress was established following the 1989 anti-communist revolution to care for orphaned children with HIV/AIDS. The charity currently runs hospices for terminally ill and severely neurologically and physically compromised children, most of whom are abandoned.
It’s a prestigious provider in the field of assistance and child protection, which promotes and ensures the access of children with disabilities and those at high risk of family and school abandonment to recovery, education , integration, through a multidisciplinary approach, its website says.
The Foundation has a stable core of specialized staff and provides professional services of a high quality and develops the partnership at the level of the local community, between different public and private bodies.
CID has a community support network that works according to the successful model in Great Britain ” a network that significantly contributes to the development in optimal conditions as a Foundation. “
