Bulking up for a recordSwift swim across the Irish Sea

HE’S Swift by name and now he’s hoping to show he’s also Swift by nature.

Twenty-four-year-old Jim Swift is hoping to get into the record books by swimming from Ireland to Wales in August.

The postgraduate student said it’s a mere 54-mile swim and he’s looking forward to the challenge.

But if that thought’s not torturous enough, he’s been whipping himself with nettles for the past few weeks to get his body used to jellyfish stings.

In the build up to the swim, he’s also bulking up — consuming a whopping 10,000 calories a day in an effort to gain a massive three-and-a-half stone.

“When you tell people that you are going to bulk up, they think about you sitting down to a big bar of chocolate and that it’s nice. But my regime at the moment is a bit different.

“I’ve been doing things like having a big bowl of spaghetti bolognese for breakfast. It’s a tough task in the early hours of the morning.

“Robert de Niro is my inspiration at the moment. He actually moved to Italy in the run up to Raging Bull because he had to gain so much weight for the film.”

The nettles torture is difficult. “I went down to the sea for a swim over the weekend and lashed myself with the nettles before an hour-long swim. I don’t know which was more torture.

“The challenge is tough but, it’s entirely possible,” the gutsy young man from Tramore, Co Waterford, says. “Its just a few miles more than the last swim.”

Jim successfully swam the English Channel in 2003. Only 39 people have ever completed the challenge, but no one has ever conquered the longer Irish Sea strip between Ireland and Wales.

Swift has been training for the past nine months.

His schedule revolves around arduous hours in the sea and in swimming pools, as well as gluttonous eating to gain enough body fat to swell from 12.5 to 16 stone. This fat insulates the cold water from the muscles and is consumed as fuel during the swim.

Jim lost 14 pounds in 14 hours on the Channel swim. This next swim will last around 35 hours.

While Jim isn’t allowed out of the water, he’ll be trailed by a boat carrying his father, Declan, and brothers, Larry, 27, and Brian, 17. A film crew will also be beside him all the way.

Jim hopes to get sponsorship for the event and donate money to a worthy appeal. Details of the charity will be revealed in the coming days.