Sjogren Tom & Tina (Sweden)

Sjogren Tom & Tina

Originally from Sweden, Tom and Tina Sjogren live in New York. The couple started out in the field of adventure when they climbed the summit of the Everest (1999). They then accomplished a "Two in One" by reaching both the North and the South Pole.

At the time of their expeditions to the poles (2000-2002), they were known as T &T (Tom and Tina). She is a Czechoslovakian political refugee having ended up in Sweden, he is a Swede having emigrated to New York in 1996. Following the example of all the polar adventurers, they wanted to mark history by adding to their expeditions a little something that would, on the one hand, attract potential sponsors and, on the other, thrill all those who were following their expedition.

In the end, this little something didn't turn out to be so little after all. At the time of their first attempt to the South Pole during the year 2000, they already intended on doing a "two in one", meaning that, within the same year, they would reach the North Pole right after the South Pole. This would be the added-value to their adventure. But they also had in mind that future polar expeditions would be carried out using communication technologies. So, they set out to become the pioneers of image broadcasting from the most remote places of the poles. This fondness for the new technologies lead the couple to create the renowned ExplorersWeb company (the website of which is a worldwide leader in reporting about contemporary polar expeditions) and the technological section HumandEdgeTech.

Actually, the couple's first footsteps of adventure were accomplished in the Everest in 1999, when they broke the record of high altitude broadcasting. In the fall of 2000, they decided to tackle the South Pole, carrying with them ultra-sophisticated transmission equipment. On the 64th day of their trek, just after having crossed the 87th degree and with just two weeks left before reaching the Pole, they decided to give up. Tom was functioning on painkillers since they had departed on the adventure and they were having to face fields of nearly insurmountable sastrugis.

The following year, in November 2001, the couple did it again. They were the first to broadcast live pictures and sounds of the Antarctic ice cap. On 29 May 20002, just four months after having returned from the austral region, they reached the North Pole completely autonomously with, here also, not only a speed record (118 days) but also a worldwide feat Ãâ the live broadcast of satellite images and of sounds coming from the Arctic pack ice.

Tom Sjogren was born in Stockholm on 8 November 1959, while Tina Sjogren was born in Prague on 26 May 1959. They have been married since 1983.