Tightrope walker Nathan Paulin broke his world record for distance on Tuesday, May 24 at Mont Saint-Michel on a 2,200-meter-long slackline connecting a crane to the abbey, claimed his team.
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After falling at the very beginning of his first attempt, Nathan Paulin immediately rebounded, not admitting defeat, to finally start his long crossing again.
A challenge that will take two hours before the athlete voluntarily lets himself fall, "
for security reasons
", said his entourage, suggesting a fall.
"
He couldn't walk to the end,
" Alexandre Gomez de Miranda, the event's security manager, told AFP.
"
He hit the stop mark and therefore the record was broken
," said Laura Zhang, press relations officer for the tightrope walker.
Exceptional crossing, exceptional device.
To allow the sportsman to reach the bells of Mont-Saint-Michel, a mobile crane of 160 tons and culminating at 114 m high was positioned near the starting point, the Couesnon dam.
The arrival was it, placed at some 95 meters in height, under the attentive eye of a crowd of spectators having moved expressly for the event.
"
A beautiful place that attracted me
"
Attached by a harness and secured by a lifeline, he advanced step by step, barefoot, on the two centimeter wide strap, before reaching the abbey shortly before 7:30 p.m.
In 2017, he had set the previous length record by crossing 1662 meters at 300 meters high in the circus of Navacelles (Gard and Hérault).
The weather finally turned out to be rather mild: despite a few gusts at the start of the afternoon, neither the rain nor the wind disturbed the crossing, which took place under a bright sun.
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The choice of Mont Saint-Michel was imposed, "
simply because it is a magnificent place that attracted me
" but also because "
it is important to show this heritage in a different way
“, explained Nathan Paulin to AFP before his feat.
He was to give a press conference in the early evening.
Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay have been classified by Unesco as a world heritage site since 1979. Nathan Paulin is a regular at spectacular crossings.
He set his first length record in 2014, covering 601 meters in the Lyon region.
His second record was established in 2015 when he crossed 403 meters in Reunion: a feat increased to 1,020 meters in length in 2016 in the Alpes-Maritimes.
On two occasions, Nathan Paulin had also linked the Eiffel Tower to the Trocadéro in 2017 and in 2021.