Hey, I thought they stopped binding feet in China a while ago.
This week, a Hunan father tied up his eight-year-old daughter's arms and legs and tossed her in the Xiang River for a three-hour swim. He says his daughter swam like a dolphin, covered a mile and loved it the whole time.
She is training to swim the English Channel, a goal she is desperate to achieve, her father (a teacher and self-made trainer) said. The dolphin-style swimming practice was his idea, and he assures everyone who condemned the feat/feet that she was never in danger since he was swimming next to her the entire time.
(Side note: Am I the only one thinking fondly of Patrick Duffy’s swimming techniques in the tragically unacclaimed late-70s/early-80s television series “The Man from Atlantis”?)
Back to the girl: English Channel administration is pretty much saying “over our Coast Guard’s dead body" regarding (1) swimming with bound limbs in English waters and (2) anyone under 16 years old swimming the Channel for an official record.
That’s bad news for yet another eight-year-old girl, this one from India, who is also training to swim the 21-mile stretch of choppy waters, which also happens to be the world’s busiest shipping lane.
How many other eight-year-olds are training to swim these marathon distances? I'm getting the impression that my kids are lazy.
Photo: Daily Mail
