Giorgos Tsianos: The Greek doctor – athlete who swam in Antarctica

“My participation in this specific mission was inextricably linked to my medical, scientific and athletic status.” Among other things, the Greek doctor-athlete Giorgos Tsianos, who recently swam in Antarctica, emphasizes this in the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

Giorgos Tsianos – as part of his role – as an expedition doctor in Antarctica, swam in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean. The multinational expedition has been in West Antarctica for the past month to observe and record glaciers and icebergs, sea and land life, and the effects of climate change on the isolated and remote continent. And he continues speaking to APE-MPE: “Furthermore, reflecting that I have experienced the glaciers in the Himalayas and specifically in the Everest region and observing now, again, the effects of climate change on the Antarctic glaciers and its surrounding elements, there were no room in me not to continue to worry, not to worry, but also not to want to mobilize, to be part of a change that is now imperative. I want to maintain my optimism and my faith in man.”

George Tsianos brought his medical expertise to this special place. He specializes in mission medicine and is also a physiologist with a research interest in the response and performance of the human body in adverse environmental conditions. His athletic CV is multi-faceted, but primarily comes from the field of swimming, specializing in open sea marathon swimming. Champion of Greece with participation in world open sea swimming championships, he has successfully swum across the English Channel with the fastest time in the world the year he crossed it. A few years ago he became the first person in history to swim non-stop across the open Aegean Sea from the Peloponnese to Crete.

During the mission, and in collaboration with the professor and director of the FAME LAB physiology laboratory of the University of Thessaly, Andreas Flouris, they recorded and obtained scientific data of human physiology during swimming in Antarctic water conditions for the first time. Together they have studied and researched human physiology in other adverse environmental conditions, such as on Mount Everest, which George Tsianos has climbed twice, and in the Sahara desert during the most demanding ultra-marathon road race in desert conditions. George Tsianos is on his way back and is expected to soon describe both what he experienced during the expedition and the unique experience of swimming in the icy waters of Antarctica. Finally, his participation in the mission was supported by the Danish Clinical and Regulatory science group, Evnia, of which he is the Chief Medical Advisor.

More information about his action on the georgiostsianos.com website