Louise Minchin: from the breakfast sofa to Alcatraz’s shark-infested waters

As a journalist and endurance athlete I particularly love hearing stories about courageous, brave and intrepid challenges. My new book Fearless: Adventures with Extraordinary Women is inspired by a moment when I was presenting BBC Breakfast and I realised that the majority of times we interviewed people about epic stories they were men. It made me ask two questions: was it that women weren’t climbing the highest mountains, running the furthest distances and setting Guinness World Records? Or was it that we just weren’t talking to them? The book is the answer to both of those questions. 

It is a celebration of women who are doing heroic things, taking on huge challenges, setting world records and breaking down stereotypes in sport. Women like Zee Alema who wants to be the first black Muslim woman to play rugby for England. And Cath Pendleton, an ice-swimmer who set a world record for swimming a mile in the Antarctic Circle wearing just a swimsuit. To hear these women’s stories and to get to know them, rather than sit on the sidelines and talk about their endeavours on Zoom, I decided it would be more fun to go and try the things they loved alongside them, so we could all be inspired by them.

Amongst many more inspiring stories in the book, one of the most daunting things I did was to accompany Mitali and Anaya Khanzode and swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco. They were only 20 and 17 when I met them and they had made the crossing more than 75 times each, braving shark-infested waters and killer currents. It was one of the most exhilarating and alarming things I have ever attempted.