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

Cox, Lynne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375415076 ISBN 13: 9780375415074

Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc, 2004

Synopsis

A noted long-distance swimmer with a love for cold water describes her eventful career in the sport, from her record-breaking English Channel crossing and her 1987 swim across the Bering Strait from America to the Soviet Union to her exploits in the Straits of Magellan, Lake Baikal, and Antarctica. 50,000 first printing.

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, as revealed in Swimming to Antarctica. 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, Amazon.com

Review:

"An absorbing, well-written memoir. The paperback edition is even better than the hardcover, with more maps and photographs."

Gripping reading...Swimming to Antaritica is a portrait of rare and relentless drive.

"All of İher¨ superhuman escapades are vividly detailed in Cox's absorbing memoir."

"All of [her] superhuman escapades are vividly detailed in Cox''s absorbing memoir."

PRAISE FOR"SWIMMING TO ANTARCTICA"
"This would make a great story even if Cox couldn't write. But she can . . . She's done things the rest of us only imagine-and she's written a book that helps us to imagine them with clarity and wonder." -THE BOSTON GLOBE

"What emerges here is an athlete whose determination is so fierce that it seems almost exotic. She is fit. She is focused. She is Lance Armstrong with body fat."-USA TODAY

"More than the story of the greatest open-water swimmer, Swimming to Antarctica is a portrait of rare and relentless drive . . . Cox's understated style makes for gripping reading."
-SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
PRAISE FOR "SWIMMING TO ANTARCTICA"
"This would make a great story even if Cox couldn't write. But she can . . . She's done things the rest of us only imagine-and she's written a book that helps us to imagine them with clarity and wonder." -THE BOSTON GLOBE
"What emerges here is an athlete whose determination is so fierce that it seems almost exotic. She is fit. She is focused. She is Lance Armstrong with body fat."-USA TODAY
"More than the story of the greatest open-water swimmer, Swimming to Antarctica is a portrait of rare and relentless drive . . . Cox's understated style makes for gripping reading."
-SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
PRAISE FOR "SWIMMING TO ANTARCTICA"
"This would make a great story even if Cox couldn't write. But she can . . . She's done things the rest of us only imagine-and she's written a book that helps us to imagine them with clarity and wonder." -THE BOSTON GLOBE
"What emerges here is an athlete whose determination is so fierce that it seems almost exotic. She is fit. She is focused. She is Lance Armstrong with body fat."-USA TODAY
"More than the story of the greatest open-water swimmer, Swimming to Antarctica is a portrait of rare and relentless drive . . . Cox's understated style makes for gripping reading."
-SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
PRAISE FOR SWIMMING TO ANTARCTICA
"This would make a great story even if Cox couldn't write. But she can . . . She's done things the rest of us only imagine-and she's written a book that helps us to imagine them with clarity and wonder." -THE BOSTON GLOBE

"What emerges here is an athlete whose determination is so fierce that it seems almost exotic. She is fit. She is focused. She is Lance Armstrong with body fat."-USA TODAY

"More than the story of the greatest open-water swimmer, Swimming to Antarctica is a portrait of rare and relentless drive . . . Cox's understated style makes for gripping reading."
-SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
Thrilling, vivid, and lyrical, an inspiring account of a life of aspiration and adventure.
--Oliver Sacks

About this edition

• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0375415076
• ISBN 13: 9780375415074
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 323