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
Program Titles
- Swimmming to Antarctica
- Swimming across the English Channel.
- Crossed the Strait of Magellan
- Swam around the Cape of Good Hope
- Crossing the Bering Strait
- Determination bravery adventurousness
- Swimming the Catalina Channel
- Swimming Skagerrak, between Norway and Sweden
- Swam Lake Titicaca from Bolivia to Peru (altitude: 12,500 feet)
Lynne Cox, Ph.D., is an American long-distance open-water swimmer, writer and speaker. She is best known for being the first person to swim between the United States and the Soviet Union, in the Bering Strait, a feat which has been recognized for easing the Cold War tensions between US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Swim That Lifted the Iron Curtain
Lynne is an extraordinary achiever, but it is her enthusiasm and warmth, along with her respect for others, that come through above all in her writing, which is as easy and natural as her swimming ability.
“Swimming to Antarctica” is thrilling, modest, vivid, and lyrical, an inspiring account of a life of aspiration and adventure.”
How to set attainable goals and work toward them to overcoming obstacles by working steadily upon your goal from day to day, doing the training and the preparation, and 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.
What does our turbulent business environment have in common with the icy waters of Antarctica?
What does it take to thrive – not simply to endure – in such difficult circumstances?
Lynne Cox, an acknowledged master at achieving the impossible.
Lynne’s heralded long distance swims in the coldest and most treacherous seas on earth have yielded insights that are crucial to any company or organization.
Lynne is the world’s most extraordinary long distance swimmer.
Her natural exuberance and flair make her a uniquely inspiring speaker.
Lynne’s riveting presentations address such vital themes as teamwork, courage, vision, willpower, commitment for the long haul, confronting risk, and the need to push beyond one’s comfort zone.
She explains methods for:
– Building a winning team, as she has had to do (on limited budgets) to accomplish her complex expeditions
– Strategizing about risks and ways to prepare for whatever is encountered
– Achieving Flexibility in a constantly changing environment
– Deciding to Change Course when necessary, even if it means going further than expected
– Using Past Experiences to reach even further than before
– Striving for continued excellence
Audiences cheer the accounts of her bold adventures and even people who will never, ever take a dip among penguins in 29 degree water (we know you’re out there!) marvel at the vital and remarkably practical lessons they take away from Lynne’s presentations.
Nike, Smith Barney, Starbucks, Prudential Insurance, Wilshire Conferences, Citigroup, Stoneyfield, Covance, Leadership America, Legg Mason, and more.
Lynne Cox is a bold risk-taker who has explored the far territories of human endurance,. She is the world’s most extraordinary long distance swimmer, and has repeatedly proved this in the coldest and most treacherous waterways of the world.
Audiences cheer Lynne’s heroic story and marvel at the vital lessons learned from it.
Blessed with few of the standard tools of athletic prowess, Lynne has relied on gritty dedication and an indomitable spirit to accomplish feats that are nearly unimaginable.
– At age 15, Lynne broke the men’s and women’s records for her 33 miles swim of the English Channel
– At age 17, she shattered the men’s record for swimming the Catalina Channel
– First woman to swim the Cook Strait in New Zealand, between the north and south islands
– She was the first person to swim Skagerrak, between Norway and Sweden
– First person {note: forgive the frequent use of the term “first” but there’s no way around it} to swim the shark-infested waters around Cape of Good Hope, Africa
– She swam the Bering Strait, the channel that forms the boundary between Alaska and Siberia, opening the US-Soviet border for the first time in 48 years
– First to swim the Strait of Magellan, reputedly the most treacherous 3 mile stretch of water in the world
– First person to swim Lake Titicaca (altitude: 12,500 feet) from Bolivia to Peru
– She was the first person to swim more than a mile in 32 degree water to the ice-bound shore of Antarctica, where she was greeted by a flock of penguins
And that’s just the stuff that made the headlines. . .
Audiences are equally inspired by the parts of Lynne’s story not recorded in the record books:
– Being considered too plump to participate in sports (in point of fact, her female trait of evenly distributed body fat has been a key to her success)
– Training her body to tolerate many hours of freezing temperatures that might kill a normal person in a matter of minutes
– Persevering for 11 years in order to overcome a mountain of bureaucratic objections to her Bering Strait swim
– Her almost mystical ability to blend the functions of mind, body, and spirit
Named one of the notable women by Glamour Magazine, Lynne has been featured on 60 Minutes, profiled in People and Biography, praised by Oliver Sacks and President Ronald Reagan, inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame, and interviewed on numerous radio and TV programs.
A documentary on her has been featured on the Discovery Channel.
Oh, yes. In answer to everyone’s most pressing question: doesn’t Lynne feel the sharp bite of intense cold?
Lynne replies, “It’s not that I don’t feel it; it’s just that I don’t focus on it.”
“I have been in this game a long time – more than 15 years of planning programming and hearing some of the most remarkable speakers in the country, and I have never heard anyone more real, engaging, thought-provoking, funny, truly accomplished and humble all the same.”
“A portrait of rare and relentless drive.” Sports Illustrated
“A triumph of positive outlook, hefty preparation and raw courage”
Books by Lynne Cox, Ph.D.
Book Lynne Cox, Ph.D. for your Event!