Coach Marianne Wieland de Alvarez founded Fundacion Honu, a charity in Mexico that helps people with a disability through sports and coaches para swimmers to the Paralympics and open water challenges, including an English Channel crossing of double leg amputee Pedro Rangel Haro from Guadalajara, Mexico. His dream became a reality with a 15 hour 48 minute crossing in 2018. Rangel is a Mexican 5-time Paralympic medalist swimmer who lost both of his legs in an accident when he was 8 years old when he battled between life and death.
A Go Fund Me campaign was set up to cover the expenses of Rangel’s next solo crossing: a 32 km Crocodile Swim that may take over 15 hours to complete and will culminate in a documentary film of his life as a swimmer and father. The Crocodile Swim is a 32 km course from Banco Chinchorro to Mahahual on the coast of Quintana Roo. Banco Chinchorro is an atoll reef, a protected nature reserve located on the southeast corner of Mexico. It is the largest of its kind in Mexico and the second largest on the planet. Banco Chinchorro is known for its rich biodiversity, one of the only two spots in the world where American crocodiles live.*
Coach Alvarez says, “His determination and passion for inclusion has inspired so many and exemplifies the strength of what it means to be human.
We believe that swimming gives people with disabilities the feeling of freedom” and well being. Today, we are building a high performance training center in Quintana Roo. that will offer disability-accessible pools in 7 hectares of land. Our goal is to start construction this year. Once the center is running, we will be able to give back to the community of people with a disability. Our projected revenue will go towards programs that help people with disabilities live in a world that has far too many inaccessible spaces. Because an accessible world is a right and not a privilege.
Thank you for your help, we greatly appreciate your time and donations.
For more information on his Crocodile Swim, visit here.
* In October 2021, a 5-person relay team of 5 Mexican open water swimmers completed an unprecedented 45 km relay from Chinchorro to Costa Maya, Mexico in the Mexican Caribbean. Nora Toledano, Ximena Argüelles, Jaime Lomelín, Antonio Argüelles, and René Martínez with escort crew members Marieluise von Rheinbaben, Josune Mondragón, and Jacinta Martínez completed the crossing in 15 hours 55 minutes.
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