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Lynne Cox was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up
in Los Alamitos, California, where she still lives. She is the author of Swimming to Antarctica and Grayson. Her
articles have appeard in The New Yorker and the
Los Angeles Times Magazine, among other
publications.
At age 9, she began her swimming career in Manchester, NH with the
Manchester Swim Team. Her coach was Ben Muritt, the Harvard University coach. At
age 12, Lynne moved with her family to Los Alamitos California where she began
training with Don Gambril, coach of four US Olympic Swim teams.
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 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 hoiurs 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.
For more information please take a look at the Swimming Hall of Fame website.
Lynne was inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame in 2000.
Lynne Cox's website
This bio was last updated on 08/03/2016. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
Q: When you were twelve years old, your
parents decided to move from New Hampshire to California so you and your
siblings could train with a top-notch swimming coach. What role did your family
play in your development as a channel swimmer?
A: My parents were very supportive of my channel
swimming. On my early swims, either my father or my mother went along with me on
the escort boat. They also took turns walking with me during my training
sessions. They helped me learn to maintain my pace. When my mother and I
traveled to England so I could attempt the English Channel, my brother and two
sisters pitched in and took care of things my mom would have done if she had
been at home. They were all very supportive of my swimming, and for a period of
time, David, my older brother, was my swimming coach.
Q: At the young age of fifteen, you "achieved
your highest goal in life": crossing the English Channel and subsequently
breaking the world record. When did you transition from setting goals of
breaking records to setting personal goals that would somehow affect the world?
A: My swim across the Cook Strait in 1975 was the
event that changed everything. After I had been swimming for more than five
hours, ...
Susan Casey is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Devil's Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America's Great White Sharks. She served as creative director of Outside Magazine, where she was part ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Grayson
Try:
The Devil's Teeth
by Susan Casey
Julie Checkoway is an author and documentary filmmaker. She graduated from Harvard College, the Iowa Writers Workshop, and the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Grayson
Try:
The Three-Year Swim Club
by Julie Checkoway
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