Loretta Cox (69, Great Britain, @channelswimmingacademy) became the 100th individual in history to achieve the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming. Back in 2014 when she was 58, the British swimmer from Westerham became one of the oldest Triple Crowners at that time.
She crossed the English Channel in 15 hours 37 minutes in 1995. A circumnavigation swim of Manhattan Island followed when she finished the 1997 Manhattan Island Marathon Swim in 9 hours 7 minutes. Nine years after she set out from Dover, she achieved the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming when she crossed the Catalina Channel in 2014 in 15 hours 41 minutes.
But 58 seems on the young side of things nowadays.
As 69-year-old Coach Cox once wrote, “Every year is a privilege. Have you ever thought: ‘I’m fat. I’m old. I’m not enough?’
I was young once.
To all my female friends from 50 years and up: Most of us are going through the next phase of our lives. We’re at that age where we see wrinkles, gray hair, and extra kilos. We see the cute 25-year-olds and reminisce. But we were also 25, just as they will one day be our age. We aren’t the “girls in their summer clothes” anymore.
What they bring to the table with their youth and zest, we bring our wisdom and experience. We have raised families, run households, paid the bills, dealt with disease, sadness, and everything else life has assigned us. Some of us have lost those who were nearest and dearest to us. We are survivors. We are warriors in the quiet.
We are women, like a classic car or a fine wine. Even if our bodies aren’t what they once were, they carry our souls, our courage, and our strength. We shall all enter this chapter of our lives with humility, grace, and pride over everything we have been through, and we should never feel bad about getting older.
It’s a privilege that is denied to so many.
For over a decade, Cox has offered her wisdom and expertise via the Channel Swimming Academy where she coaches groups and individuals from beginners to channel swimmers, providing one-on-one consulting in sports, nutrition, training, logistics, and how to promote and obtain personal sponsors.
She was originally a (running) marathoner, but an accident in 1995 ended her running career and she quickly transitioned to swimming. In 2014, she authored In at the Deep End, an autobiography about her remarkably inspirational life where she has overcome cancer, surgeries, and other obstacles. She also lived in South Africa for a number of years where she set up and ran People of Hope, a charity that educates and give care to a large township population in relation to HIV and AIDS.
But she finished and remains a personable inspiration for many others.
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