Philippe Croizon, the multi-handicapped adventurer “distributor of positive energy” at Cobaty Nîmes

"Everything is possible" : Philippe Croizon invited to deliver a positive message to the members of Cobaty in Nîmes.

"Since I took three 20 000 volt discharges, I have been a distributor of positive energy." Who better than Philippe Croizon to deliver a message about surpassing oneself to building entrepreneurs in the middle of a storm? This is what? thought the president of Cobaty Nîmes, Jacques Gaudibert. "The economic situation is bad, we know it. We didn't want to find someone who would explain it to us again, but someone who knew how to put it all in a positive light, who herself had overcome her own difficulties.

Philippe Croizon's storm began with an electrocution in 1994, when he touched a power line on the roof of his house."I wake up after two months of coma, I am an amputee of all four limbs and I ask a nurse to turn on the television. And there, I see a young girl swimming across the Channel. She is the second French woman to achieve this feat since 1875. And I, at that time, did not yet know the phenomenon of surpassing oneself and I saw this girl fighting against the elements. And I say to myself why not me one day…"

"We move forward together and we succeed together. It’s team spirit."

It was sixteen years later, in 2010, that he achieved this feat. A crossing of the Channel between Folkestone and Cape Griz-Nez in 13 hours and 26 minutes which will make it famous "with an epic ending, in the middle of a storm, at night, with a hundred people looking for me. It was my sons who found me…"

But what matters, in the adventure, for Philippe Croizon, is not so much the result as the path traveled. In fact, it was necessary to go through, first of all, “the famous phases of mourning”, then to plan ahead, by asking for help – “too many people in our society do not dare to ask for a helping hand" –, build, finally, a team.

"I met Suzanna, my wife and I often say that love gave me palms… And there is the whole team. When I decided to take on this challenge, I didn't know how to swim! I was 40 years old, I was as fat as a bacon. The prosthetist made me two 3 kilo anvils per leg and the first time I tried them, I had to be retrieved from the bottom. And then we practiced. We did 4000 km of swimming in two years. What we must remember is that we move forward together and we succeed together. It’s team spirit."

Other exploits have since followed. Philippe Croizon connected the five continents by swimming, achieved a diving record and participated in the Dakar. The adventurer is also committed to the cause of accessibility, with the Very important parking application, which he co-created and which aims to be the "Waze of ;rsquo;accessibility".

"I am often asked if I would like to return to my previous life. My answer is no, because I love my life now. Because I made something rich out of it, Philippe Croizon likes to say. A positive speech which will, inevitably, have convinced the entrepreneurs of Cobaty.