Thursday, September 15, 2011

Lynne Cox: the greatest open water swimmer ever will be doing a book signing here in Los Angeles on September 22,

Diana Nyad is a great open water swimmer but she is no Lynn Cox. See Diana Nyad's GPS map of her attempted swim from Cuba to Florida: [Link]

Lewis Gordon Plough, the guy who swam at the North Pole, swam in or around the MT. Everest locale and other exotic locations can't even touch her either. See the YouTube of his North Pole event here: [Link]

Lynne Cox's resume is so long and so accomplished that I suspect it will never be matched or beaten and that is not hyperbole.

So if you live in "Lost"Angeles or will be coming to L.A. Lynn Cox will be visiting the Pages bookstore in Manhattan Beach next Thursday at 7 p.m. on September 22nd. Go and meet here and ask her questions too; it will be worth it.

The store is located at: 904 Manhattan Ave, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266. Here is a link to the Pages bookstore website: [Link]

Included herein is a list of some of her accomplishments to back up my statement that she is the greatest open water swimmer ever. When you read it, pretend the narrator for the PBS show NOVA who also happens to be the narrator for the Dos Equis "Most interesting man in the world" commercials is reading this list to you:

In 1971: at age 14 Lynne swam across the Catalina Channel with a group of teenagers from Seal Beach, California . They swam a distance of 27 miles in 12 hours and 36 minutes.

In 1972 at age 15 Lynne swam across the English Channel and shattered the men's and women's world records with a time of 9 hours and 57 minutes.

In 1973 at age 16 Lynne returned to England and broke the men's world record for the English Channel a second time with a time of 9 hours and 36 minutes.

In 1974 at age 17 Lynne returned to the Catalina Channel and broke the men's and women's world records with a time of 8 hours and 48 minutes.

In 1975 Lynne became the first woman to swim across Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. Her time was 12 hour and 2 1/2 minutes.

In 1976 Lynne broke the men's and women's world record for swimming the Oresund between Denmark and Sweden with a time of 5 hours and 9 minutes. And she broke the men's and women's record that same year for swimming across the Kattegut between Norway to Sweden in a time of 6 hours and 16 minutes.

In 1976 Lynne became the first person to swim across the 42 degree F waters of the Strait of Magellan with a time of 1 hour 2 minutes.

In 1977 Lynne became the first person to swim between three of the Aleutian Islands.

In 1977 Lynne became the first person to swim 8 miles around the Cape of Good Hope in a time of 3 hours and 3 minutes.

In 1980 Lynne was invited to speak at Tokyo Medical College and to participate in a swim around Joga Shima Island.

In 1983 Lynne swam across the three Lakes of New Zealand's Southern Alps.

In 1984 Lynne swam across twelve major waterways across in the United States.

In 1985 Lynne swam "Around the World in 80 Days" by swimming 12 extremely challenging waterways some that had never been attempted.

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.

In 1988 Lynne became the first person to swim across Lake Baikal and had a cape in Russia named after her.

In 1990 Lynne swam across the Beagle Channel between Argentine and Chile as a way to promote cooperation between the two countries. She became the first person in the world to complete this swim.

In 1990 Lynne swam across the Spree River between the newly united German Republics.

In 1992 Lynne became the first person to swim across Lake Titicaca from Bolivia to Peru.

In 1994 Lynne swam through the Gulf of Aqaba from Egypt to Israel and from Israel to Jordan tracing the progress of peace between the three countries.

In 2002 Lynne became the first person to complete a 1.2 miles in Antarctica, from the ship the Orlova to Neko Harbor in a time of 25 minutes.

In 2007 Lynne swam the Northwest Passage Swims: Greenland, Baffin Island, Prudhoe Bay, Chukchi Sea.

If you want to be more amazed, go check her site: [Link]



8 comments:

Mike Edey said...

Lynne's accomplishments are simply mind boggling. It's hard to even attempt planning such spectacles, let alone perform them.

I would, humbly, suggest another name for the "world's greatest" list - Vicki Keith. All that freezing-open-water-don't-sleep-for-a-week stuff but done largely butterfly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicki_Keith
TEDx: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znY6JbrHVt8

She now has one of the arguably most successfully paraswimming programs on the continent: http://www.penguinscanfly.ca/penguinscanfly/?CFID=46100766&CFTOKEN=63743778

Rob D said...

Oresund and Kattegut? I think you just gave me some excuses to travel back to Sweden... thanks for the random inspiration Tony :)

Tony Austin said...

:-) I cannot say it let alone pronounce it.

Charlie said...

Got to say that there is one better open water swimmer, Alison Streeter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Streeter

Tony Austin said...

We have three nominees; let's have a shoot out.

I will compare the three over the weekend and do a post.

danthefiddleman said...

I look forward to your comparison. Obviously, all three swimmers are amazing but are very different from each other. You'll notice that Lynne doesn't repeat swims. I don't want to put words into her mouth; but I think that, for her, the challenge is making the crossing. Once that's done, it's time to move on. She probably could have completed doubles of England or Catalina, but repeating a crossing doesn't interest her.

Obviously, Alison Streeter thinks differently. And I'd like to know more about Vicki Keith. If she actually swam for 63 hours and/or 129 hours straight, then you can toss out everything I said about D.N.

Anyway, it might be more accurate to say that Lynne is possibly the greatest cold-water marathon swimmer ever.

Tony Austin said...

On the SCAQ Blog: There can only be one!

danthefiddleman said...

After hearing Lynne speak last night, particularly about her swim in TWENTY-SIX DEGREE WATER; and taking into consideration the incredible range of swims that she's done and how she has documented many of them in her wonderful books; if there can only be one greatest marathon swimmer ever, it's gotta be her.

Did I mention that swim in TWENTY-SIX DEGREE WATER!