Fyodor Konyukhov

[1] Konyukhov was born in the village of Chkalovo, located in the Pryazovskyi Raion of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

His father was a fisherman on the Sea of Azov, while his grandfather had served in the same garrison as Georgy Sedov, an Arctic explorer.

Supposedly Konyukhov attended a nautical school in Odesa and another in Leningrad earning a specialty in polar navigation.

There is a legend that he was stationed in a Kaliningrad guardhouse with the Baltic Fleet when he volunteered for a 2.5 year tour of duty as a Soviet Marine sailing across the South China Sea as special forces delivering munitions to the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.

[2] After his service in the Soviet Armed Forces, he left behind the terrible realities of war and completed a vocational arts school in Bobruisk which enabled him to become a successful painter and sculptor.

[7] Konyukhov has set world records, notably crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a row-boat URALAZ in 46 days,[8] the best 24-hour distance in the same boat (110 miles).

[10] Konyukhov announced his intention to challenge Fossett's record in September 2015,[11] although the idea had "first captured [his] imagination in 1992".

[20] 2000 (March) – Completed the longest dog race IDITAROD – 1150 miles from Anchorage to Nome (Northern route) finishing in 68th place in 15 days.

Together with his partner - Viktor Simonov they crossed Arctic Ocean in 46 days and reached the shores of Ward Hunt Island (Canada).

[24] Fyodor is the first Russian mountaineer to complete the Seven Summits challenge for which a person must climb the highest mountains of each of the seven continents, also he is the first Russian traveller and third person in the world, who completed The Explorers Grand Slam: he also visited both the North Pole and the South Pole.