CAIRO: When Dominican Republic and world ultra distance open water swimming champion, Marcos Diaz, was invited at a high school United Nations model to speak about UN Millennium Development goals (MDGs), little did he know that two years later he would be swimming across the world to promote them.
"I didn’t have a clue what the MDGs are when I was invited to the model," Diaz said.
At his second stop in Egypt to cross the Red Sea from Asia to Africa, Diaz is swimming across the five continents in a period of four months to bring public attention and create awareness of the eight UN MDGs.
The MDGs include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV-AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing global partnership for development.
"I put a mission for me since the start of my career to always be involved in beneficial programs; for that, we established the Marcos Diaz foundation in 2004 to help children in the Dominican Republic," Diaz told Daily News Egypt.
Diaz and his team were looking for water ways to connect the five continents; however, according to Diaz, they needed a cause to channel these efforts into.
"I asked my friends about the MDGs but they also didn’t know about them so I had to learn about them before speaking [at the UN model] and I found them to be incredibly great and that’s when I said that this should be the cause of our project," Diaz said.
"For the first time in thousands of years, all countries of the world agreed on something, so we thought we can implement our project in the 10th anniversary of the agreement," he added.
Through his foundation, Diaz presented the project to the UN two years ago and got their approval to endorse the initiative.
"Swim Across the Continents" consists of four crossings: the first from Papa New Guinea (Oceania) to Indonesia (Asia), completed two weeks ago, while the second is from Coral Bay, Jordan (Asia) to Taba, Egypt (Africa) scheduled between the June 9 and 11 depending on weather conditions.
The third cross starts from Point Cires, Morocco (Africa) to Tarifa, Spain (Europe) and finally from Big Diomede, Russia (Europe) to Chulotka, Alaska (America).
Diaz is staying in Egypt for 10 days during which he is hosted by the Ministry of Tourism and under the sponsorship of the National Sports Council; he will be training with the Egyptian national team in Police Union Club during his stay.
Diaz is scheduled to visit UN programs in Egypt like ICT (Information Communication Technology) program in Siwa that helps locals with the issues of illiteracy and Micro-financing; he may also visit the demining project in the western desert as well as other projects in Cairo.
"I was looking forward to my visit to Egypt big time since it is a very prestigious country in open water swimming with its old and modern champions of the sport like Abdel Latif Abu Hef and current world champion Mohamed Al Zanati," Diaz said.
Although there are no records of shark attacks in the Red Sea, Diaz is taking his precaution by using score boats and shark shield devices.
A symbolic swim from the statue of liberty in New York to the UN headquarters is scheduled to take place in September. People who sign the petition on the website ww.iswimwithmarcos.com will be able to join Diaz in the swim.
"The more people we get, the [better]; this isn’t a one-man swim, this is everybody’s swim," Diaz said.
"When one man can swim from one continent to the other, it will show people that whatever political, religious or cultural differences that we may have, we aren’t that far from each other; this is the message I am trying to convey," he added.
"Open water swimming might not be popular but it inspires and we want to inspire people and create awareness among them of the development goals because they are the ones who will be carrying it out," he said.
For this sake, Diaz will be sacrificing his professional year to complete the project.
"I would have been competing in the world circuit by now but this is something I had to do to feel good; this isn’t wasted time but personal gratification for me," he said.
"To put aside my competitive calendar to one social project using open water swimming, it is the opportunity of a lifetime," he added.
Diaz’s career has many achievements like swimming across the English Channel (England-France, 2004), world record crossing back and forth the Strait of Gibraltar (Europe – Africa – Europe, 2005) and 1st place in the world’s longest competition in the Bhagirathi River in India (81 km, 2006)
He was champion of the International Crossing of the Toroneos Gulf in Greece for three consecutive years (2004 – 2006), double swim around the Island of Manhattan, New York (more than 96 km nonstop, 2007), as well as conquering the highest place ever to be obtained by a Dominican swimmer in the World Ranking of FINA (International Swimming Federation).
Although the four crossings may not be the hardest for Diaz or any professional open water swimmer, it involves different kind of challenges.
"The biggest challenge is to stay in shape while traveling a lot, doing the visits; the swim will be very hard and very tough although it won’t be my longest," Diaz said.
"I will be sacrificing competition and shape but when we finish, I am sure the best satisfaction will be that we did it for a good cause," he added.
