Bhakti Sharma (born 30 November 1989) is an Indian

Open water swimmer Open water swimming is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers. The beginning of the modern age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when Lord Byron swam s ...

. Sharma is the first Asian woman and the youngest in the world to set a record in open swimming in Antarctic waters. Sharma swam in 41.14 minutes, at a temperature of , breaking the record of

Lynne Cox Lynne Cox (born 2 January 1957) is an American long-distance open-water swimmer, writer and speaker. She is best known for being the first person to swim between the United States and the Soviet Union, in the Bering Strait, a feat which has been ...

(USA) and

Lewis Pugh Lewis William Gordon Pugh, OIG, (born 5 December 1969) is a British-South African endurance swimmer and ocean advocate. Dubbed the "Sir Edmund Hillary of swimming", he is the first person to complete a long-distance swim in every ocean of th ...

(Great Britain). Bhakti Sharma has swum in all the five oceans of the world, besides swimming in or across eight other seas and channels. She was awarded the

Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award, formerly known as the National Adventure Awards is the highest adventure sports honour of the Republic of India. The award is named after Tenzing Norgay, one of the first two individuals to reach th ...

in 2010. On June 22, 2016,

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

tweeted to support the crowdfunding campaign started by Sharma on Fueladream.com.

Early life

Sharma was born in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

and brought up in

Udaipur Udaipur () (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura''), historically named as Udayapura, is a city and municipal corporation in Udaipur district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the administrative headquarter of Udaipur district. It is the historic capit ...

, Rajasthan. She holds a master's degree from Symbiosis School of Media and Communication, Bengaluru in Communications Management, and holds a bachelor's degree in Commerce from Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, Rajasthan.

Swimming career

Sharma started swimming at a young age of 2 and a half years, coached by her mother Leena Sharma. After having participated in many State and District Level competitions, her first open water (Sea) swim was a 16 km swim from Uran port to Gateway of India in 2003. Sharma was just 14 years old that time. Along with her Mother-Coach Leena Sharma and friend Priyanka Gehlot, Bhakti holds the Asian record for the first swim by a 3-member women's relay team across the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

. She also shares a world record with her mother for being the first mother-daughter pair to swim across the English Channel, a feat that they achieved in 2008. Sharma is only the third person in the world to have swum in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

, and recently swam in the Antarctic Ocean to become the youngest to swim in all five oceans, a feat which earned her recognition from Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

. Sharma's swimming career's major milestones include : * 2006: Crossed the

in 13 hours 55 minutes on 6 July at the age of 16 from Shakespeare Beach, Dover England to

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

, France * 2006: Winning the

Lake Zurich Swim The Lake Zurich Marathon Swim belongs to the world's longest swimming marathon races. It is held annually in August and is organized by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team. The participants swim from Rapperswil Rapperswil ( Swiss German: or ;And ...

* 2007: Swam 25 km in

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

as a part of 2007 U.S.A Swimming Open Water Championships in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. * 2007: Completed the Swim around the Rock (Alcatraz), a race of 6.5 km in the Pacific Ocean. * 2007: Won a Gold Medal in Marathon swim around the Key West Island, Atlantic Ocean that made here the first Asian swimmer to participate in three major American swimming events. * 2007: Crossed the Strait Of Gibraltar in the Mediterranean Sea at Tarifa, Spain, considered as one of the most challenging sea courses, in 5 hours and 13 minutes. * 2010: Successfully swam a distance of 1.8 km in 33 minutes in the

, and in the process became the second and youngest swimmer in the World to swim in 4 oceans. National Swims * 2004: Successfully swam a distance of 36 km from Dharamtal to

Gateway of India The Gateway of India is an arch-monument built in the early 20th century in the city of Mumbai (Bombay), India. It was erected to commemorate the landing of King-Emperor George V, the first British monarch to visit India, in December 1911 at ...

, Indian Ocean in 9 hours and 30 minutes. * 2008: Created an Indian record along with her mother Leena Sharma and friend Priyanka Gehlot by covering a distance of 72 km in 16 Hours, 58 minutes from Dharamtal to Gateway of India, Mumbai, and back.

Recent record

On January 10, 2015, Sharma became the youngest in the world and first Asian girl to swim in the freezing water of Antarctica for 2.25 km, beating the record of British open water swimming champion

and American swimmer

. Sharma swam for 41.14 minutes, covering 2.25 km distance in the freezing waters of Antarctica while the temperature was only one degree celsius. She performed the record-breaking swim with the sponsorship of

Hindustan Zinc Limited Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) is an Indian integrated mining and resources producer of zinc, lead, silver and cadmium. It is a subsidiary of Vedanta Limited. Earlier it was a Central Public Sector Undertaking, sold by Government of India to Ved ...

Motivational Speaking

Sharma is also a motivational speaker; she has been invited to speak about her experiences at various national and international speaker platforms. Some of the well-documented speaker opportunities include * Bhakti Sharma at IIT Kanpur - "Lessons learnt from the seven seas" * Fighting against odds: Bhakti Sharma at TEDxNMIMS * From desert to Antarctica - a swimmer's journey and lessons learnt , Bhakti Sharma , TEDxIIMUdaipur * TEDxSIBMBangalore - Ms. Bhakti Sharma "Pride of India" - Challenging The Conventional * Bhakti Sharma delivers a talk at Vodafone Zonathon * Bhakti Sharma at Shakti Sundays, Udaipur

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharma, Bhakti 1989 births Living people Indian female swimmers Articles created or expanded during Women's History Month (India) - 2015 Swimmers from Mumbai Female long-distance swimmers Sportspeople from Udaipur Sportswomen from Maharashtra 21st-century Indian women 21st-century Indian people Recipients of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award