- Lynne Cox
Lynne Cox (born 1957) is an American long-distance open-water swimmer and writer. In 1971 she and her teammates were the first group of teenagers to complete the crossing of the Catalina Island Channel in
California . Ironically she was always the slowest swimmer in her swim classes. She has twice held the record for the fastest crossing (men or women) of theEnglish Channel (1972 in a time of 9h 57 mins and 1973 in a time of 9h 36 mins [Dover Life - Successful Crossings 1973 [http://www.doverlife.co.uk/channelswimming/crossings/1973/0] ] ). In 1975, Cox became the first woman to swim the 10°C (50°F), 16 km (10 mi)Cook Strait inNew Zealand . In 1976, she was the first person to swim theStraits of Magellan inChile , and the first to swim around theCape Point inSouth Africa , where she had to contend with the risk of meetingshark s,jellyfish , andsea snake s.Cox is perhaps best known for swimming the
Bering Strait from theisland ofLittle Diomede inAlaska toBig Diomede , then part of theSoviet Union , where the water temperature averaged around 4°C (40°F). [In 1987 Lynne became the first person to swim across the Bering Strait as a way to open the US-Soviet Border for the first time in 48 years with a time of 2 hours and 6 minutes. [http://www.lynnecox.org/aboutlynne.htm] ] [Associated Press. "Swimmer conquers frigid Bering Strait -- American's crossing of waterway to Soviet Union is unprecedented." August 8, 1987. "Washington Post ," p.A1.] At the time, in 1987, people living on theDiomede Islands , only 3 km (two miles) apart, were not permitted to see each other, although many people had close family members living on the other island. Even more remarkably, her accomplishment easedCold War tensions asRonald Reagan andMikhail Gorbachev both praised her success. [Smith, Martin. January 31, 1988. "The transcendent power of the solo athlete." "Orange County Register ," p.J1.]Cox's most remarkable accomplishment was swimming more than a mile in the freezing waters of
Antarctica . Althoughhypothermia would set in most humans inside of five minutes, Cox was in the water for 25 minutes swimming 1.06 miles. Her first book, "Swimming to Antarctica", was published byAlfred A. Knopf in 2004.Her second book, "Grayson", the true account of her encounter with a lost baby
gray whale during an early morning workout off the coast of California, was published in 2006.In August 2006 she swam across the
Ohio River inCincinnati from the Serpentine Wall toNewport, Kentucky to bring attention to plans to decrease the water quality standards for the Ohio River.The
asteroid 37588 Lynnecox was named in her honor. [ [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/NumberedMPs035001.html] , [http://pdssbn.astro.umd.edu/SBNcgi/sbdbatt] ]Cox swam in the Nile River after she had broken the record of the English Channel. She had to be pulled out of the water during the race because she was suffering from dysentery she had gotten while in Egypt.
References
* Lynne Cox, "Swimming to Antarctica", Alfred A. Knopf, 2004 ISBN 0-15-603130-2
* Lynne Cox, "Grayson", Alfred A. Knopf, 2006 ISBN 0-307-26454-8.
External links
* [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/12/60II/main540357.shtml CBS News on the Antarctic swim]
* [http://www.lynnecox.org/ Lynne Cox website]
* [http://www.bigspeak.com/lynne-cox.html Lynne Cox Profile Page] - - Video clip, book listings, speaking topics.
* [http://www.channelswimmingassociation.com/ Channel Swimming Association]
* [http://cetl.edtech.csulb.edu/Grayson Lynne Cox reading "Grayson"] online multimedia e-book (Chapter 1).
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