56-year old woman swims Atlantic

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From the Globe and Mail:

Jennifer Figge’s résumé is an unconventional read peppered with eyebrow-raising lines such as these: Ran across South America, Chile & Argentina, 576 miles, 21 days (1993); Ran across Mexico, 180 miles (last 60 miles in cast on left leg), 8 days (1995); Swam Aruba to Venezuela, Incomplete (currents, jellyfish sting/swollen eye), 18 miles (1996).

When the 56-year-old logs her latest accomplishment, achieved last week, it will read something like this: Swam in cage from Africa to Trinidad, 2,100 miles, or this: Became first woman to swim across Atlantic Ocean (2009).

However she decides to document it, Ms. Figge will have plenty of time to mull it over. The endurance addict based in Aspen, Co., is scheduled to slip back into the sea tomorrow to start a swim from Tobago to the British Virgin Islands, where she’s chosen to end her odyssey at the Bitter End Yacht Club in late February.

By the time she hits land, Ms. Figge will have spent more than two months in the water enduring what seamen along the way have told her are the worst conditions on her course in decades: She endured 9-metre waves and swam an extra 1,600 kilometres to avoid them.

Jennifer Figge’s Facebook page