“I do it for you,” says André Belibi Eloumou (36) from Geneva to Blick. And he means his daughter Kira (11), who suffers from autism, a developmental disability – she has difficulty speaking or understanding things. “She needs to know that it doesn’t matter what she is, but that she can achieve what she wants and that if you want to do something in life, it doesn’t depend on the constitution,” he told the Canadian. news channel ” CTV News».
And what he wants to do is tough: The extreme athlete, mindset coach and personal trainer has it in his head to stay in an ice bath for more than three hours – the current world record is three hours and 28 seconds. “I’m ready for this challenge,” he says. “It’s a mind thing.”
He jogs half-naked through the snow
The Swiss traveled to the city of Calgary in Canada for his training. The temperatures there are below zero at this time of the year, until recently it was around minus 30 degrees. Dressed only in shorts and shoes, he nowadays jogs for hours through the snow in the freezing cold.
André Belibi Eloumou has many friends in Calgary because he went to university there. One of them is Pacifique Mangapi, who also acts as his coach. “We meditate a lot and do breathing exercises, and we also focus on strength and endurance training,” says Mangapi. “We’re targeting the abs.”
Belibi Eloumou started taking ice baths two years ago. He can now stay in water and ice for over an hour: “An hour and 21 minutes”, as he says. He can also run 22 kilometers barefoot in the snow.
For the ice bath in the plexiglass box
However, the ice bathing world record will not take place in the water, says the man from Geneva. But then in a plexiglass box. “I’m standing in it and I’m covered in ice up to my shoulders.” The venue for the competition is Geneva, which will take place at the end of the year.
Until then, Belibi Eloumou is still doing altitude training in the Swiss mountains, in Zermatt VS and Grindelwald BE. For this he will return to his home country on Saturday. Above all, he also takes care of a fundraising campaign that he launched against autism. His big goal: to create awareness for the developmental disorder.
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
