Swimming To Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer - Hardcover

Lynne Cox

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786264217 ISBN 13: 9780786264216

Publisher: Thorndike Press, 2004

Synopsis

A New York Times Editor's Choice

In this extraordinary book, the world's most extraordinary swimmer writes about her emotional and spiritual need to swim, and about the almost mystical act of swimming itself. Lynne Cox has a photographic memory of her swims, and tells us how she conceived of, planned, and trained for each. She re-creates for us the experience of swimming (almost) unswimmable bodies of water - a lone swimmer among the waves, pitting her courage against the odds.

About this title

Review:

Just about every other person in the world seems like an unfocused dilettante compared to long-distance swimming legend Lynne Cox. Soon At the age of 14, after several years of training hard in pools and the open sea, she was swimming the 26 mile stretch from Catalina Island to the coast of California. A year after that, she surpassed a lifelong goal by not only swimming the English Channel but setting a new men's and women's record in the process. Rather than be satisfied, Cox aimed still higher, conquering the Cook Strait in New Zealand, the Strait of Magellan and, the Cape of Good Hope, none of which had been swum before. Being the first to swim the Bering Sea from Alaska to what was then the Soviet Union is perhaps Cox's most impressive achievement, requiring a phenomenal amount of physical strength and endurance to withstand the chilly waters and diplomatic persistence to gain permission from Gorbachev during the Cold War. Swimming to Antarctica is Cox's remarkably detailed account of her major swims and all that went right and wrong with them. While there are plenty of highs, as one might expect in a memoir by so impressive an athlete, all is not sunshine and roses for Cox. She overcomes extreme physical hardship, predatory sharks, and a swim through a sewage-soaked Nile while suffering from dysentery. There is plenty in Swimming to Antarctica to encourage even non-swimmers to work hard to achieve the seemingly impossible, but Cox, a skilled and highly readable writer, sticks to the swimming, leading the reader by example. For thrills and inspiration, it's hard to find anyone better than Lynne Cox. --John Moe

Book Description:

Published in hardcover by Knopf, 2004, 0-375-41507-6

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0786264217
• ISBN 13: 9780786264216
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 552