Vincent Colliard Keynote Speaker

Vincent Colliard is a National Geographic explorer and one of the most accomplished polar purpose-driven adventurer. On January 11th of 2024, Vincent Colliard became the fastest person in Antarctic history to reach the South Pole, solo & unsupported. He broke the previous World Record by almost 2 days. With an average distance of 51,2 km, Vincent covered 1140km in 22 days, 6 hours and 8 min

Vincent represents a new breed of athlete willing to bridge adventure and science through his expeditions, and inspire environmental give-back on a global scale. He is also willing to push the limits of unsupported expeditions in the polar regions.

After a master degree at “Ecole Supérieur de Commerce” in France, Vincent didn’t go for a 9 to 5 office job and decided instead to work on fishing vessels in both Alaska and Norway. The rough conditions at sea, the hard labor on deck and the lack of sleep had been ingredients to forge his mindset and develop his ultra-endurance capabilities in extreme environment.

He is the co-founder of the Icelegacy project, a non-profit organization, whose current mission is to cross the 20 largest ice fields on earth. The goal is to influence the public opinion towards the conservation of glacier areas and question the human impact on ice recession.

For him, the environmental changes and the importance to be cold should be at the pinnacle of our preoccupations if one wants to leave on a balanced planet. Instead of going in the tropics for his honeymoon, he and his partner went skiing 500km on sea ice among polar bears. It tells how much Vincent is obsessed by the polar regions.

With more than 25 polar expeditions to his credit, including 84 days unsupported on the Arctic Ocean towards the North Pole or 63 days during the first Arctic winter crossing of Spitsbergen Island covering 1135km and dragging a 180kg sled, Vincent has developed a polar expertise. In 2023, he was the expedition manager during the world record of the fastest woman reaching the South Pole, solo and unsupported. He is also a certified IPGA polar guide and has led numerous expeditions, including North Pole and Antarctica.