Beno�t Lecomte is a French-born long distance swimmer who has received wide credit for being the first man to swim across the Atlantic Ocean without a kick board in 1998. He did this to raise money for cancer research as a tribute to his father. During his 3,716 mile journey in 73 days, he was accompanied by a 40 ft. sailboat that had an electromagnetic field for 25 feet to ward off sharks. He was followed by a great white shark for 5 days. He also encountered sea turtles, dolphins, and jellyfish and befriended them. The feat took him 73 days, with 8 hours spent swimming each day in sessions of about two to four hours in length. He was accompanied by a crew of three aboard the sail boat, where he could rest and eat in-between each swimming period. The swim extended from Hyannis, Massachusetts to Quiberon, Brittany, France. He stopped for 1 week in the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean due to equipment failure. On September 25, 1998 he reached the shore of Quiberon. 

June 3rd, 1967 in Enghien-les-Bains (Age 56)