Endurance, thy name is Jennifer Figge. With all the detritus we've had to sort through in sports over the past couple of days, it's a breath of fresh air to hear a story like this one. The 56-year-old became the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic as she touched land for the first time in almost a month.According to the AP report, Figge had the dream conquest in her head since the early 1960's during a stormy trans-Atlantic flight, and it turned into reality Thursday night when she arrived on Trinidad's Chacachacare Island (an abandoned leper colony of all places).
During her taxing journey, Figge had to battle waves of up to 30 feet and strong winds, and the inclement weather forced her to veer 1,000 miles off course; she originally was supposed to swim to the Bahamas. Her longest time in the water was about eight hours.
Her nourishment? That would be pasta and baked potatoes for breakfast, bottles of energy drinks -- delivered by her crew as she swam -- and at night, she dined on meat, fish and peanut butter to restock the estimated 8,000 calories she burned each day.
Figge, who made the journey a decade after French swimmer Benoit Lecomte pulled off his solo trans-Atlantic swim, will continue onward from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands before returning home to Colorado, where her Alaskan Malamute waits.
"My dog doesn't know where I am," she told the AP. "It's time for me to get back home to Hank."
For more, be sure to check out Figge's Facebook page.
Update: Figge's real swimming time and distance much shorter than reported.
Did You See That?
The field clears a fence during the New Season Handicap Steeplechase during the at Ludlow Racecourse on September 16, 2008 in Ludlow, England.
Emanuele Canonica of Italy helps his caddie in the rescue of a pigeon from the water around the 18th green during the first round of the Portugal Masters at the Oceanico Victoria Golf Course on October 16, 2008 in Vilamoura, Portugal.
A multiexposure image showing Britain's Andy Murray returning to Croatian Marin Cilic during a last sixteen tennis match at the Madrid Masters in Madrid on October 16, 2008. Andy Murray won 7-5, 7-6.
English football fans dressed in armours and tunics play in a friendly match against Belarus fans in Minsk on October 15, 2008 before the start of the Belarus vs. England 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier of European group 6 match.
Travis Brigley (R) of Hamburg fights with Matt Keith (L) of Ingolstadt during the DEL match between Hamburg Freezers and ERC Ingolstadt at the Color Line Arena on October 14, 2008 in Hamburg, Germany.
Russian Nikolay Davydenko returns a ball to US Robby Ginepri during a second round tennis match at the Masters in Madrid on October 15, 2008.
A golf ball which has been enveloped by the tree over many years is pictured during the pro-am for the Portugal Masters at the Oceanico Victoria Golf Course on October 15, 2008 in Vilamoura, Portugal.
Andy Murray of Great Britain plays football during his training session prior to his thrid round match tomorrow at the Madrid Masters tennis tournament at the Madrid Arena on October 15, 2008 in Madrid, Spain.
Samuel Peter from Nigeria gets a punch from Vitali Klitschko of Ukraine during their WBC heavyweight boxing world championship fight in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008. Klitschko won the fight after round nine due to technical knock out.
Herbert Knosowski, AP
Japan's Kyoko Hamaguchi (lower) fights with China's Hong Yan (red) during the semi-final of the 72kg class of the Women's Wrestling World Championships in Tokyo on October 13, 2008. Hong defeated Hamaguchi and will face Bulgaria's Stanka Zlateva in the final.
Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP/Getty Images
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-08-2009 @ 11:13AM
linus922 said...
Wow! What an accomplishment. Congratulations and good job!
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2-08-2009 @ 11:20AM
malper5244 said...
WWWOOWW 56 years old!Amazing!
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2-08-2009 @ 12:37PM
Bob said...
...and I do good to make it across the POOL!
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2-08-2009 @ 12:45PM
Praise the Lord said...
What an inspiration! Good job lady and after all this you're thinking more of your dog than yourself-you are so cool! My new hero!
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2-08-2009 @ 1:28PM
Robert said...
Help i look like a prune! LOL
I was a swimmer in college, no Michael Phelps if catch my drift so that's quite a feat. Bravo!
myspace.com/anotherblackseason
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2-08-2009 @ 3:01PM
KANDI said...
WOW, WHAT AN AMAZING FEAT, I HOPE THE REST OF HER JOURNEY HIS AS SUCCESSFUL. GOOD LUCK TO HER..
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2-08-2009 @ 3:04PM
mrsmillertm said...
I don't understand why people have the compulsion to be the first in this, be the first in that, etc. I understand competitions in games and such, but I guess it's just not me to have to feel like I need to be the first in things.
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2-08-2009 @ 7:08PM
forkuuu said...
this is great for young people to hear. especially those who have the idiot idea that at 56 you are all washed up. that is not the truth! at 50 you are just getting your second wind. you have life experience and life smarts and you dont really give a damn about others . a lot of young people are always saying they dont care but they just rebelling when you are over 50 you really dont give a damn . maybe the jerk who didnt get it thinks this woman did it to be first. i will bet that she did it because she wanted to doit period she did not care if she was first or not.
like i said when you get older that is just so not important.
you go girl ! thank you for doing this!!!!
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2-08-2009 @ 7:35PM
yellowlab1002 said...
And she's an American. Makes it all the sweeter. I'm proud of her. Now watch the pundits crawl out from under their rocks to try and discredit her.
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2-09-2009 @ 2:10AM
bmikee said...
so whats the format in this kind of swim? Is there a boat that stops where she gets in and stays put til she's ready to swim again? it said trans-Atlantic solo, if boat support is still considered solo then how could the swim not be solo? I'm sort of confused about the extent of the boat's role because the shortest distance across the atlantic is 1600 miles and she was definitely swimming much farther than the distance between senegal and brazil, so I'm estimating around 2000 miles.. and it said she did it in less than a month (i will estimate 28 days). Now unless my math is super wrong that would mean she was doing 71 miles a day? Is that possible?
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2-09-2009 @ 4:10AM
geezerearl said...
My congratulations 2 Ms Figge. Its a truly amazing fete regardless of age. Shows the younger
generation 50+ is not over the hill:)))
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2-09-2009 @ 7:57AM
dvstckwll said...
Sorry but I don't swallow this story.
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2-09-2009 @ 9:57AM
Bud Foster said...
I'm not buying it, either. It's impossible to swim 2000 miles in 3 1/2 weeks, even with a strong current. Do the math. There is a lot we aren't being told. However, even if she swam "only" 700 miles or so, it's still a remarkable accomplishment.
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2-09-2009 @ 11:40AM
Frank said...
If she swam 16 hours per day it would take 26.6 days to swim 2000 miles AT MICHAEL PHELPS' FREESTYLE 100M RECORD PACE FOR THE WHOLE SWIM (4.7 MPH). What's up with that?
2-09-2009 @ 10:29AM
bocabrad said...
I think it's an endurance test to FLY over the Atlantic, this woman is amazing.
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2-09-2009 @ 11:32AM
fvtreybal said...
Congratulations. Great feat. However, the numbers don't seem to add up. If she swam 16 hours per day it would take 26.6 days to swim 2000 miles AT MICHAEL PHELPS' FREESTYLE 100M RECORD PACE FOR THE WHOLE SWIM (4.7 MPH). What's up with that?
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2-09-2009 @ 12:45PM
kmh2078 said...
This story has FINALLY been de-bunked. Although the media shares the blame for not doing some basic math, geography and fact-checking, this story was fed directly to the media by her "PR person" (see her Team on her Facebook site). Her own list, created a month ago, of her so-called "endurance activities," lists her longest swim as 52 miles, yet somehow reporters were led to believe (by the PR person?) that she had swum across channels as wide as "hundreds of miles." This lady is clearly a whack job who hoped to dupe us all into paying her for appearances, book deals, etc. Unfortunately, she forgot to add a "BS Detector" to her staff to make sure she could get away with what she was claiming.
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2-09-2009 @ 1:30PM
bmikee said...
considering the recent shift in the thread, lol at yellowlab's comment.
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2-09-2009 @ 2:05PM
tcinc95 said...
For this woman to swim 2000 miles in 30 days means she would have to average 67 miles per day. That is virtually physically impossible!!!
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2-09-2009 @ 3:13PM
Bob said...
Will someone PLEASE give us the straight scoop on this woman and her ACTUAL accomplishment?! How far did she REALLY swim, and how long did it REALLY take? I'm sure there was still an incredible feat performed here, worthy of praise, but finding out that it's been over-hyped and the numbers fudged means it loses all credibility, even when the truth eventually comes out. Good catch, bmikee and others.
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