There's a fine line between insanely stupid and totally awesome. Whenever a man decides he's going to defy nature, when he looks nature in the eye and says, "Round one. Fight," his actions are generally either very stupid or very cool.
And ultimately, the deciding factor between whether that man's actions were foolish or remarkable is whether or not he accomplishes the feat he set out to pull off in the first place. History bases its merit on achievement, not intention. Think of how different history books would be if lightning had struck Ben Franklin instead of his kite.
On Feb. 1, Slovenian Martin Strel set out to swim the Amazon River, all 3,272 miles of it. On one hand, this seems like an idiotic concept, an idea that would only be undertaken by an eccentric fool with too much time on his hands and a steadfast desire to be devoured by piranhas. On the other hand, Strel seems like he's a legitimate firebrand spitting in Mother Nature's eye. Nobody has attempted to challenge the daunting raw power of nature with such disregard since Fonzie decided to jump over a shark on water skis.
Despite numerous warnings, Strel was insistent about accomplishing this feat. He ignored the skeptics, citing that within the past seven years, he had already swum the lengths of Europe's Danube, America's Mississippi and China's Yangtze rivers. The skeptics retaliated, mentioning the fact that those rivers were not teeming with deadly crocodiles, electric eels, snakes, stingrays, piranhas, sharks and the dreaded toothpick fish - which, if attracted by urine, will swim into certain orifices. The fish can then only be removed through a surgery which is actually more painful than getting devoured by piranhas.
Strel set out on his mission three months ago and finished his journey after 66 days in the river, averaging 50 miles a day. Throughout the journey, he was accompanied by three boats that would drop anchor whenever Strel needed to sleep or eat or required medical attention.
The last 66 miles were arguably the hardest for Strel, as he was fighting strong ocean currents, delirium, high blood pressure, nausea and extreme fatigue. At several points, his doctors urged him not to swim, but Strel was adamant, going so far as to occasionally swim at night to make a final push for the finish. He finished some time last weekend, and, once confirmed, will hold the world record for marathon swimming, besting his previous record from when he swam the Yangtze.
Strel is a striking model of a guy with a can-do attitude. He's a guy who takes a sport and pushes it to the next level. His accomplishment is a big deal and a milestone of what one man can do if he sets out with a goal - albeit a crazy one.
It's really sad when you look at the athletic role models of today. The media doesn't dwell on the triumphs of guys like Strel. Instead, they opt to incessantly cover each time a few NBA stars get into fisticuffs at a strip club, each time a football player is pulled over with a bunch of automatic rifles in his Escalade and each time Barry Bonds hits another steroid-charged home run. The attention athletes get is usually unwarranted. Why focus on the negative when there's so much positive going on?
As for Strel, his true manly testimonial came when, after finishing, he said, "I am not going to do the Nile. It's long but not challenging enough, it is just a small creek." I haven't heard anything that ruggedly cool since someone asked George Mallory why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest and he replied, "Because it's there."
Honestly, what more could you want in a role model?
Write to Paul at>/b> mailto:pjmetz@bsu.edu
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