Lynne Cox

Testing the limits of human endurance

Lynne Cox knows what it takes to achieve difficult goals. She has put her mind and body through tests of endurance that might seem unimaginable…and she succeeded. In her speeches, which have been described as “real, engaging, thought-provoking and funny,” she inspires audiences to think beyond their fears and limitations in order to reach their goals.  Ms. Cox tailors every speech to her audience. Her focus ranges from subjects like building a team of people who not only support what you're doing, but are quick thinkers, able to problem solve, and come up with solutions you'd never think of to concepts that focus on the individual and the capacity we have to dream, plan, hope, build upon what we've achieved, no matter how big or small. She talks about what it's like to have set backs, or what we think of as set backs, and how that sometimes is a way that helps us redefine our goals. 

Breaking Records

Lynne Cox started making headlines as early as age 15, when she broke the men’s and women’s records for swimming the English Channel. At age 17, she shattered the men’s record for swimming the Catalina Channel and her list of record breaking accomplishments only grew from there:  she swam the Cook Strait in New Zealand, between the north and south islands; she was the first person to swim Skagerrak, between Norway and Sweden; in 1987, she swam the Bering Strait from Alaska to Siberia, opening the US-Soviet border for the first time in 48 years; she was the first person to swim Lake Titicaca (altitude: 12,500 feet) from Bolivia to Peru; in 2002, she was the first person to swim more than a mile to the shore of ice-bound Antarctica in 32 degree water. Lynne is the most acclaimed long distance swimmer of the modern era, swimming the coldest and most treacherous waterways of the world and emerging with an ice-melting smile.