Meet Cassandra de Pecol, the First Woman to Visit Every Country on Earth…and She’s Just 27!

• She has reached all 193 sovereign nations within 18 months and 26 days.
• Her journey cost her almost $200,000. She has received financial help from sponsors.
• Cassie is also an author, speaker, philanthropist, AND an Ironman athlete!

When most of us could only dream of taking vacations at least twice a year, there are those who have made traveling their life. Now there are lots of travelers roaming all over the world, but only one (so far) has made the distinction of being the first woman to to visit EVERY COUNTRY ON EARTH…and she’s just 27 years old!

Cassandra de Pecol, who’s from Connecticut, started her globe-trotting only in July 24, 2015. By February 2, 2017, Cassie has already treaded all 193 sovereign nations.

She managed to accomplish this jaw-dropping feat within 18 months and 26 days.

This earned her a title at the Guinness Book of World Records. Interestingly, it only took her half the time to achieve it compared to the previous world record holder.

She was also hailed in Time magazine’s Female First as one of the “Women Leaders Who Changed the World.”

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Can’t believe 2018 is already coming to a close 🙉! The biggest goal that I had set for myself this year health & wellness-wise was definitely finishing my first, full Ironman race, which I had set to achieve by the age of 30. Fitness-wise, my goal was to increase my athletic endurance coming off of Expedition 196 last year, which had resulted in a loss of physical fitness when it came to distance triathlon racing. I feel that I have learned quite a bit from hiring a nutritionist to help me meet my goals, moving to Boulder for altitude training, surrounding myself with like-minded triathletes, working with Erin Carson at @ecfitboulder, and racing 70.3 Napa and 70.3 Boulder leading up to Ironman Florida. 🏆 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ That wasn’t the only goal though, and there were quite a few solid career goals that I had set for myself and had met as well – one of them being publishing my book, developing my fitness app (set to launch by the end of the month!), organizing my next Guinness World Record attempt in the field of endurance and travel, and having the pleasure of working with @jnj to further discuss topics that are really important to me; like mental health, entrepreneurialism, and athleticism. 💡 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ In preparation for organizing your goals in 2019, I’ve written a blog post which includes my 5 most important tips that I incorporate into my daily life that have helped me reach my goals this year, and that I hope will enable to me to successfully meet next years, as well. Every year, I also like to spend a week organizing my ‘Annual Review’, which I learned about a few years back from @193countries. Spending time focusing on developing a timeline involving actionable measures towards goals broken down into various categories such as business, family & relationships, and health & wellness also sets the stage towards following through with these goals and enabling a successful 2019 year. You can find the link to my blog post in my bio! ☝🏽 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Let me know in the comments below what tactics you are aiming to focus on in order to achieve your goals in 2019. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #jnj #ad #livehealthylivewell

A post shared by Cassie De Pecol (@cassiedepecol) on Dec 21, 2018 at 9:59am PST

The adventure wasn’t just pure leisure for Cassie. She traveled as a Peace Ambassador for International Institute for Peace Through Tourism.

Her journey was chronicled as Expedition 196.

The amazing trip around the world cost her almost $200,000 bur fortunately, sponsors financed her travels.

Cassie also used her Instagram account for advertising in exchange for free accommodations.

Everyone has their favorite places in the world, especially Cassie, who has seen so much. She mentions Antartica, Oman, Iceland, Mongolia, Bhutan, Peru, Pakistan, and Maldives as some of her most memorable places.

Cassie in Pakistan

Cassie in Bhutan

What’s even more amazing is that Cassie is a solo traveler. She’s also an author, speaker, philanthropist, AND an Ironman athlete!

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Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain. ⚡️ – Joseph Campbell • • • Competing in the @hitstriathlonseries 70.3 this past weekend was filled with immense nerves, extreme excitement, and utter despair. It was my first 70.3 in 4 years and a test to see where I stand time and endurance-wise for @ironmantri Boulder in 2 months. I felt on fire, PRd my swim by 7 minutes, first out of the water for my age group, and flying through the bike, on track to PR my bike by 1.5 hours 🙉. It was a euphoric feeling pushing through the rolling hills with pins and needles from the 45°F chill and riding steady through the morning misty vineyards. The beauty was confirmation as to why make a daily commitment to put myself through grueling training day in and day out in order to compete in such a lengthy, tiresome 70.3 mile race. But by mile 30, my knees slowly gave way and by mile 50, tears of pain as I gruelingly pushed through each pedal. This knee pain had initially hit me during mile 6 of my last 70.3, 4 years ago, and I’ve been ignoring it ever since, even through all of my runs around the world, thinking it was all in my head, but in actuality, it wasn’t. ITB Syndrome and Patellar Tendonitis is what I found out it was, and it’ll require a month of rehab and then slowly working up my mileage again. I’m a very competitive person by nature, but in the sport of tri, I’m not in to win it but rather, always go in with the goal of beating my own times and strengthening my mind and body. Competing in a full Ironman by 30 has been a bucket list goal since I was a teenager, and I can guarantee I’ll be meeting that goal this year, if not once, twice. 🏃🏼‍♀️🚴🏼‍♀️🏊🏼‍♀️ • • • Thank you to the lovely @riverterraceinn for hosting me during my stay in beautiful Napa Valley and major thanks to all of the volunteers at the race! Also, thank you guys for your support and words of encouragement, exciting to see so many of you who are also athletes! 👏🏽 The pain has given me a kick in the ass to want to go after my next race even stronger, to achieve my athletic goals, and to travel and see new places in the process! 🌎

A post shared by Cassie De Pecol (@cassiedepecol) on Apr 18, 2018 at 12:54pm PDT

You would think that after her amazing accomplishment, Cassie would just chill and relax, but she just keeps on pushing. After her journey, she founded “Her International,” a female-driven organization.

She also worked on several initiatives for the environment. Plus she has collaborated with a number of the biggest brands in the globe.