JENNIFER FIGGE HA ESTADO LA FRIOLERA DE 24 DÍAS NADANDO
Una estadounidense de 56 años se convierte en la primera mujer en cruzar el Atlántico nadando
* · Superó olas de 9 metros de altura · Los tiburones no la molestaron · "Nunca me asusté"
MARCA.com 09/02/09 - 09:50.
Jennifer Figge ha escrito su nombre con letras de oro en el historia del deporte al convertirse en la primera mujer en cruzar el Atlántico, y lo ha logrado.... ¡con 56 años!
La deportista estadounidense, que nació el 12 de noviembre de 1952 en Davenport (Iowa), estuvo nadando la friolera de 24 días entre Cabo Verde (África), de donde salió el 12 enero, y Trinidad (Caribe).
La veterana nadadora ha superado duras jornadas de ocho horas nadando, y durante su travesía tuvo que aguantar olas de hasta 9 metros de altura.
Originalmente su idea era nadar hasta las Bahamas, pero las inclemencias meteorológicas la obligaron a cambiar de planes.
"Nunca me asusté", confesó la ya histórica deportista.
Woman claims Atlantic swim first
Maps showing route
A 56-year-old American athlete claims to have become the first woman on record to swim the Atlantic.
Jennifer Figge took 24 days to swim from the Cape Verde islands off Africa to Trinidad. The exact distance she covered has yet to be calculated.
She swam inside a cage to protect her from sharks.
Figge, who had originally planned to make landfall in the Bahamas, now plans to finish by swimming from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands.
She first dreamed of swimming across the Atlantic Ocean as a little girl.
Jennifer Figge
Looking back, I wouldn't have it any other way
Jennifer Figge
The swimmer finally moved nearer her goal when she left Cape Verde Islands on 12 January, facing waves of up to 9m (30 ft).
Each day she would spend up to eight hours in the water at a stretch before returning to her support boat.
Crew members would throw the athlete energy drinks as she swam along, if it was too stormy divers would deliver them in person.
She saw pilot whales, turtles, and dolphins, but no sharks.
"I was never scared," she told the Associated Press news agency.
"Looking back, I wouldn't have it any other way. I can always swim in a pool."
Jennifer Figge's journey comes 10 years after a French swimmer, Benoit Lecomte, made the first known solo trans-Atlantic swim covering 6,400km (4,000 miles) in 73 days.
Figge had planned to swim 3,380km (2,100 miles), but she was blown off course and reached Trinidad rather than the Bahamas.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7877222.stm
http://www.marca.com/2009/02/09/mas_deportes/otros_deportes/1234169432.html
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