Bhakti Sharma

Bhakti Sharma is an Indian open water swimmer from Udaipur. It is worth noting that Bhakti started swimming from the age of two & a half and was trained by her mother, Leena Sharma. Her first open water (sea) swim in 2003, was a 16 km swim from Uran harbor to Gateway of India, after participating in several state and district level competitions. She was only 14 at that time. Bhakti Sharma holds several world records to her credit in long-distance swimming. She has swum the longest distance of 36 km. Along with her friend Priyanka Gehlot and mother-coach Leena Sharma, she holds the Asian record at the English Channel for the first swim by a 3-member women's relay team. Bhakti also holds a world record with her mother, for the first mother-daughter duo to swim across the English Channel, which they achieved in 2008. In 2010, Bhakti Sharma received the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award from former President Pranab Mukherjee. In January 2015, she made a world record by swimming 2.3 km at a temperature of 1°C (34 ° F) in 41.14 minutes, breaking the records of Lynn Cox (USA) and Lewis Pugh (England) in the Antarctic Ocean. She is the first Asian woman to set a record in open swimming in Antarctic waters and the youngest woman in the world. Bhakti has also held a swimming record in all five oceans of the world. She has mastered swimming in ponds, rivers, seas and oceans.

Major Achievements-

• In 2003, she swam across 16km from Uran Port to Gateway of India, Mumbai.
• In 2004, she successfully swam a distance of 36 km from Dharamtar to Gateway of India in the Indian Ocean in 9 hours and 30 minutes.
• On 6 August 2006, she competed in the 19th International Self Transcendence Marathon Schwimmen, Rapperswil - Zurich. The marathon was 26.4 kilometres long. She finished on the first position and became the youngest woman in the under 40 age group to achieve this feat in 10 hours, 41 minutes and 42 seconds.
• On 6 July 2006, she crossed the English Channel in 13 hours 55 minutes at the age of 16, from Shakespeare Beach, Dover England to Calais, France.
• In 2007, she crossed the Strait Of Gibraltar in 5 hours and 13 minutes in the Mediterranean Sea at Spain, which is considered as one of the most challenging sea courses.
• In 2007, she swam around the Rock (Alcatraz), a race of 6.5 km in the Pacific Ocean
• In 2007, she clinched a Gold Medal in Marathon swim around the Key West Island, Atlantic Ocean.
• In 2008, she set an Indian record with her mother Leena Sharma and friend Priyanka Gehlot, covering a distance of 72 km in 16 hours, 58 minutes, from Dharamtar to Gateway of India, Mumbai.
• In 2010, she successfully covered a distance of 1.8 km in 33 minutes in the Arctic Ocean. In the process, she became the second and youngest swimmer in the world to swim in 4 oceans.
• She received the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award from former President Pranab Mukherjee in 2010.
• In 2015, she made a world record by swimming 2.3 km at a temperature of 1°C (34 ° F) in 41.14 minutes in the Antarctic waters.