56 year old woman becomes first to swim across the Atlantic

Posted by Queuebot in Everything Else on February 8, 2009 at 5:34 pm


Jennifer Figge from Aspen, Colorado, accomplished a feat never done before by a female: swim across the Atlantic Ocean.  A decade earlier French swimmer Benoit Lecomte made the first known solo-Atlantic swim from Massachusetts to France in 73 days.

Reaching a beach in Trinidad, she became the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean — a dream she’d had since the early 1960s, when a stormy trans-Atlantic flight got her thinking she could don a life vest and swim the rest of the way if needed.

The 56-year-old left the Cape Verde Islands off Africa’s western coast on Jan. 12, battling waves of up to 30 feet (9 meters) and strong winds.

David Higdon, a friend of Figge who kept in touch with her via satellite phone, said she had originally planned to swim the Bahamas, but inclement weather forced her to veer 1,000 miles (1,610 kms) off course to Trinidad, where she arrived on Feb. 5.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.


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COMMENT

10 comments to "56 year old woman becomes first to swim across the Atlantic"

  1. Johnny Cat
    February 8th, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    She burned around 8,000 calories a day. That's amazing.

  2. Rhea
    February 8th, 2009 at 8:13 pm

    I love hearing about a woman of that age accomplishing something so physically demanding.

  3. Goodatsports
    February 8th, 2009 at 8:52 pm

    I don't even know how someone could do that. Does she have a boat following her at all times? Do she sleep in the water, floating?

  4. Staxeon
    February 8th, 2009 at 10:43 pm

    She must have been pruny at the end.

  5. DOJ
    February 8th, 2009 at 10:44 pm

    Similar ventures I've seen in the past have the swimmer stay alongside a boat in a netted off area.

  6. GabbaGabba
    February 9th, 2009 at 10:33 am

    That photo of her is not very complimentary. She looks like a corpse.

  7. Oomi
    February 9th, 2009 at 11:32 pm

    Amazing.

  8. Kathy
    February 10th, 2009 at 1:34 am

    Why is her face so white? If she got that way from being in the ocean too long, I'd say it wasn't worth it.

  9. jm1656
    February 12th, 2009 at 1:35 pm

    didnt happen.

  10. Art
    February 12th, 2009 at 10:02 pm

    Turns out she is a fraud,,, sort of... she only swam maybe 250 miles of what suppose to be 3000 mile trip.


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