Cox, Lynne (1957–)

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Cox, Lynne (1957–)

American long-distance swimmer. Born Jan 2, 1957, in Manchester, New Hampshire; dau. of Estelle Cox (artist) and Albert Cox (radiologist); attended University of California, Santa Barbara.

Moved with family to Los Alamitos, California (1969); set a new English Channel record for both men and women (1972); was the 1st woman to successfully swim Cook Strait (1975); crossed Bering Strait (1987); swam 10 miles across Peru's Lake Titicaca (1992); completed 14-mile swim across Gulf of Aqaba (1994); also swam the Nile, Africa's Cape of Good Hope, and Siberia's Lake Baikal. Inducted into International Swimming Hall of Fame (1992).

See also memoir Swimming to Antarctica (Knopf, 2004); and Women in World History.