Pepe Fiamoncini Lives His Dream
Adherbal de Oliveira, President of Leme to Pontal Swimming Association, reported that 31-year-old Valmor Giuseppe Leonardo Lundgren Fiamoncini had a dream.
Pepe was focused on his academics and later focused on the business world. He graduated with degrees in administration and accounting, but he left the corporate world to live his dreams through sport. He wants to explore human potential, be it physical or mental.
Adherbal explains, “With the philosophy of experiencing and overcoming limits, Pepe has visited 28 countries, doing a vareity of diverse challenges, including rafting downstreams, parachuting, bungee jumping, rock climbing, diving in icy waters, paragliding, climbing the biggest mountains in the world (twice Mount Everest), cycling across Brazil and most recently, he focused on open water swimming. He completed the 36 km Travessia do Leme ao Pontal between Leme Beach and Pontal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
After a surgery with the installation of a screw in his wrist that kept him away from any physical activity for a month, Pepe decided to dedicate himself to running. However, a new injury appeared, this time with his knee. Faced with the limitations and improvement of the wrist injury, Pepe decided on a swimming challenge and chose the Travessia do Leme ao Pontal.
Together with his coach, Bernardo Tillmann, he started a cycle of 4 months of intense preparation, 100% focused on the challenge and with up to 4 daily training sessions.
On October 24th, Pepe started the Travessia do Leme ao Pontal at 1:49 am on a beautiful night, light wind and crystal clear water with a temperature of 24ºC. The forecasts of stronger easterly winds in the afternoon were confirmed, leaving the sea very wavy and requiring more strength from the swimmer to keep in the direction aligned with the escort boat Otto Magaçhães Jr of Commander Ary da Conceição.
Pepe continued advancing with an average speed of 2.5 km per hour with a stroke per minute pace varying between 66 and 68. In the final stretch, about 6 km to the conclusion of the challenge, he faced another major concern: he began to experience severe pain in his left shoulder.
With the strategy of pulling with lesser force with the injured shoulder, despite the strong pain, Pepe managed to stay focused and continued to progress, overcoming the winds that were getting stronger every moment.“
After 13 hours 17 minutes, Pepe completed the Travessia do Leme ao Pontal.
Upon reaching the sands of Pontal Beach, he was greeted by his support team, earning the youngest skin swimmer on record.
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