Some athletes embody their sport. Their exploits capture the imaginations of millions as their legacies go beyond the sports pages: Michael Jordan in basketball, Muhammad Ali in boxing, Roger Bannister in running.

Lynne Cox is such an individual and has earned her place in the pantheon of the world’s greatest athletes. Her influence goes beyond the shorelines, spilling into the realm of geopolitics and human potential. Through her audacious swims, her written words and her soft-spoken nature, Cox inspired generations of athletes – and non-athletes – to identify, explore and mine their own potential.

Her credentials were established at a teenager when she first set records in the English Channel and Catalina Channel. But unlike other sports icons who performed magnificently in televised sporting events as their platform, Cox faced significant logistical, financial and athletic risks in creating her own canvas. She went literally where no man had ever ventured before. Her artistry was framed by the most unimaginable places on Earth and described so eloquently in her popular books.

Relentlessly adventurous, Cox looked at Planet Earth and took on some of the harshest bodies of water possible. She made the frigid waters of Antarctica, the high-altitude Lake Titicaca and the treacherous Bering Strait her arenas of choice. And she never faltered or failed as the eyes of the world and its most powerful politicians gazed in wonder at the humble pioneer from Seal Beach, California.

With a focused mindset geared to success and respectful of the inherent risks of the seas, she has completed an unprecedented lifetime of firsts. However, her true and lasting legacy showed the rest of the world that the impossible is, in fact, possible.
Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source