Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer (Alex Awards (Awards)) [DECKLE EDGE] (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Please. Please. Please, Coach, let us out of the pool, we're freezing," pleaded three purple-lipped eight-year-olds in lane two..." (more)
Key Phrases: skiff captain, test swim, upper inches, English Channel, Bering Strait, Big Diomede (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com 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

From Publishers Weekly

Cox, one of the world's leading long-distance swimmers, has been a risk-taker ever since she was nine and chose the freezing water of a New Hampshire pool in a storm over getting out and doing calisthenics. After her family moved to California so she and her siblings could train as speed swimmers, she discovered long-distance ocean swimming. Her first open-water event, a team race across the Catalina Channel, convinced her to train for the English Channel. At 15, she broke the Channel record, and decided she needed a new goal. Up to this point, Cox's story reads like a fairy tale of hard work, careful planning and good support, crowned with success. It isn't until she competes in the Nile River swim that the tale turns ugly-she's swimming in raw sewage and chemical waste, fending off the dead rats and broken glass, so sick with dysentery she lands in the hospital. Undeterred, she plans more ambitious swims-around the shark-infested Cape of Good Hope, across Alaska's Glacier Bay-to prepare for her big dream, a swim from Alaska to the Soviet Union across the Bering Strait. While offering herself to researchers studying the effects of cold on the human body, her political goals are even larger: to bring countries and peoples together, using swimming "to establish bridges between borders." Cox ends her story with her swim to Antarctica, where she finishes the first Antarctic mile in 32-degree water in 25 minutes. Even though readers know she survived to tell the tale, it's a thrilling, awesome and well-written story.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (January 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375415076
• ISBN-13: 978-0375415074
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #512,575 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Focus on the accomplishment, not the pain, April 4, 2005

By	bensmomma "bensmomma" (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer (Paperback)

Lynne Cox is such an inspirational writer that the reader concentrates on her exceptional accomplishments, both physical and mental, rather than the extreme pain and struggle it took to accomplish them. From her early teens, Cox has eliminated almost everything else from her life to dedicate herself to open-water swims in treacherous and freezing waters, including crossing the Bering Straight between Alaska and the Soviet Union, and swimming a mile in the Antarctic Ocean.

What I really loved about this book is the way Cox struggled not only with the physical challenges of the swims but also struggled to make the swims mean something more to the world at large. For example, the Bering Straight swim took something lik 16 years of meetings and negotiations to arrange, hundreds of donors and volunteers. But in the end that swim stood as a testament and metaphor for the improving connections between nations. Everywhere she goes, Cox seems to have inspired anyone fortunate enough to witness her. That this has come with a great deal of personal sacrifice--money troubles, social limitations, significant nerve damage--is humbly underplayed in the book. She has a kind of determination and self-confidence that transcends a particular athletic endeavour.

That Cox does not *look* like anyone's idea of an endurance athlete just adds to the inspiration -- she's 45 and she's swimming to Antarctica...so what's MY excuse?

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring, June 22, 2004

By	mary - See all my reviews

Lynne Cox's story is an inspiring account of perseverance, determination, and courage. She is an excellent role model for all athletes in that she swims for a greater purpose than herself. Although it is for her about pushing her physical and mental limitations and the challenge of doing something new, she also attempts to bridge borders between people. I gave this book four stars rather than five for two reasons. One, I would have liked it if she had woven more of her personal life into the story and told about how the way she lives her life is reflected not only in her swims but in other aspects of living (which I assume is true- I doubt her athletic feats exist in a vacuum- but I don't really know, since we only got a glimpse here and there of her private life.) Two, it would have been great if she had included pictures, particularly because as a woman who is apparently heavier than most successful female athletes (although again, she doesn't really get into detail on this topic), she would serve as a great role model for girls who don't fit the typical athlete mold. Still, her stories were fantastic and should be inspiring to anyone who appreciates people who aren't afraid to get out there and live life to the fullest, challenge themselves, and try to make a difference in the world.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lynne rates as a modern Adventurer!, January 24, 2004

By	cousette copeland "codyhaha" (santa clara, california USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I started reading Swimming to Antarctica at 8 pm and I couldn't put it down till I finished it after midnight!

Her book, her adventures, her swims, and especially Lynne herself - are all fantastic! Not only did she set and achieve personal goals, she did it keeping in mind her involvement with those around her - family, coaches, fellow swimmers, the community, and even those non-swimmers who cheered on her achievements!

I can't stop using exclamation marks because I admire and am thrilled by everything Lynne has done!

I wish the book had photographs! I wish I read Lynne's book or heard about herin high school - it might have inspired me to do more over the years.

The writing is engaging and you feel you are right in the stormy, foggy ocean or in the murky slime of the Nile or in the icy, freezing water of Antarctica. Lynne rates as high as Thor Heyerdahl (Kon Tiki) as a modern adventurer. When I saw a photograph of her in People Magazine - it was wonderful to put that smiling face to the smiling voice that comes through clearly in her writing!

I will read and re-read this book many times over the years.