Bula Chowdhury Profile

Bula Chowdhury is an outstanding long-distance swimmer who has made her mark in competitive swimming as well. Bula came into spotlight when, in her first national competition at just 9 years of age, she dominated her age group by winning six gold medals in as many events.

In a career spanning 24 years, Bula has become the first woman in the world to have conquered the seven seas in five continents. She earned this distinction in August, 2004 by crossing the Palk Straits from Talaimannar in Sri Lanka to Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu in approximately 14 hours.

Bula swam the English Channel in 1989 and repeated the feat in 1999 to become the first Asian woman to swim the channel twice. She then went on a long-distance swimming spree to swim the Strait of Gibraltar in 2000, Tiranian Sea in Italy (2001), Great Toroneos Gulf in Greece (2002), Catalina Channel in the U.S. (2002) and Cooks Straits in New Zealand (2003).

Bula Chowdhary completed the swim through the Strait of Gibraltar in a world record time at 3 hours and 35 minutes. In 1990, she was awarded the Arjuna Award.