Vasanti Niemz (42) from Germany, studied translation in Heidelberg and today works for a Swiss producer of organic vegetarian food products.

In 1981, at age 24, she discovered meditation and became a vegetarian. Inspired by the modern yoga of Bengal born peace philosopher Sri Chinmoy, she developed a daily routine which combines sports (in the beginning running) and meditation.

Soon, endurance events began to fascinate her. In running, little injuries constantly stopped her from training more, so she turned to swimming. In September 1985, after an amazingly short period of training, supported by the inner strength of regular meditation, she became the first German woman to officially swim the Channel. In the years to come, a number of marathons and ultra-marathons followed, two crossings of Lake Zurich (26.4 km), a small triathlon , an Ironman, and in February 1998 , at age 42, an ultra-triathlon in Canbarra, Australia (10x Olympic distance: 15 km swimming, 400 km biking, 100 km running). Like many of her team-mates from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team she finds that a wholesome vegetarian diet not only benefits a spiritual way of life, but also supports endurance capacity - and keeps you young, fit and healthy well into the "middle age" and beyond.

The lecture and slide show:

The English Channel is regarded as one of the ultimate challenges of long distance swimming. Only about 10% of the attempts at crossing the Channel are successful. Swimmers attempting to cross the Channel have to brave icy water temperature (15-17° C), changing winds, weather and tide, jellyfish, seaweed, oil slicks and the heavy traffic of one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

Vasanti will try to convey some of the fascination of this challenge and the inner and outer preparation for it - and what an impact it can have on your life. Even if you never dream of swimming the Channel yourself, the lecture will give you inspiration to brave challenges cheerfully in any other field of life.