It was at the age of 12 that Jingkun Xu had his left arm amputated after an accident during a fireworks display. Two years later and while this farmer’s son was participating in the Chinese Paralympic selections, he was asked to do athletics, cycling or sailing.
It is this last discipline that he chooses, even though he has never seen the sea and does not know how to swim. But no matter, this choice pays off since the young Jingkun who came down from his mountain turns out to be a good element. It is therefore to Qingdaothe seaside town located at the foot of Laoshan Mountain and on the shores of the Yellow Sea, where he held his first Paralympic regattas.
But at the age of 17 and while the Chinese selection was counting on him, he discovered in the press the exploits of a young British woman in the Vendée Globe, Ellen MacArthur. It was then that he began to dream of the open sea, of traveling around the world.
He therefore begins his long apprenticeship, comes to settle in France, registers at the start of the Mini Deckchair 2015 and became the first Chinese sailor to complete this oh-so-difficult solo race before setting off to tour the world for three years aboard a small catamaran.
On his return to China in June 2020, Jingkun created his own sailing school in Qingdao, he is twice elected “Sailor of the Year” in China but his dream of doing the Vendée Globe did not fade away so he bought the old boat with which Armel Le Cléac’h finished 2nd in the 2008-2009 edition.
Now a full skipper, Jingkun Xu finished in 29th place in the 2022 Route du Rhum, 33rd in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2023 and has passed all the selection stages to be at the start of this 10th Vendée Globe alongside the cream of the planet’s skippers, thus becoming the first Chinese skipper to start the race nicknamed the Everest of the seas.
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