August 7 - The First Swim From the United States to the Soviet Union

This Day in History: 7 August 2020

 

7 August 1987

 

33 years ago, today, Lynne Cox faced the freezing waters of the Bering Strait as she became the first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union. Cox's swimming career had begun when she was just nine years old. Her parents shortly moved the family to California, in order for Lynne and her siblings to live near the ocean and have better swim coaching. She proved to be a natural at open-water swimming after swimming the 31-mile Catalina Channel, and swimming the English Channel in just under 10 hours at the age of 15, breaking the world record for both men and women.

 

By 1987, the Cold War was just beginning to relax when Cox decided to try to swim the Bering Strait. The Soviet Union, under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, opened their border to her. She wore only a swimsuit in water just above freezing as she set off from Alaska. Cox, with a team of physiologists monitoring her, stayed in the water for just over 2 hours as she crossed the international dateline and reached the coast of the Soviet Union. The next year, while signing the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Gorbachev referred to Cox's achievement and stated that, "she proved by her courage how close to each other our peoples live". Her swim is considered one of the most amazing cold-water swims in history.

 

Want to find out more about Lynne Cox's swimming achievement? Click here for more information, or here for more about her life.