Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History, Volume XXV

Wednesday, September 9, 2009
This is Lynne Cox. A hero of Hot Chick Jeri's, she's a long distance open water swimmer who has taken her love of a sport and translated it into political activism.

She's made a variety of challenging and record breaking swims in her career, including the English Channel, Cook Straight, Catalina Channel and the Straight of Magellan.

Her most famous swim, however, was in 1987, where she was the first person to swim across the Bering Strait with a time of 2 hours and 6 minutes. The water was 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and she attempted the swim as a way to open the US/Soviet border for the first time in 48 years. Her accomplishment helped to ease Cold War tensions as Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev both praised her success.

Additionally, she also completed a 1.6 mile swim in the waters of Antarctica.

Tough lady, and a good example.

1 comments:

Jeri said...

She's pretty amazing, thanks for featuring her. I'm not entirely sure I want to follow in her footsteps - no-wetsuit coldwater swimming is a bit of a stretch. :)