Jennifer Figge (born November 12, 1952https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jennifer-Figge/31076423324 ) is an American athlete from
Aspen, Colorado
Aspen is the List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population ...
, who in 2009 attempted to swim several portions of the Atlantic from Africa to South America, starting on January 12, 2009, at the Cape Verde Islands, and ending in North America in Trinidad and Tobago on February 5. Newspaper accounts reported she covered a distance of roughly 2000 miles.
Born in
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport ( ) is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state. Davenport had a population of 101,724 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 cen ...
, Figge is the daughter of Margaret Nobis who as an opera singer took the name
Margherita Roberti
Margherita Roberti (1925 – January 23, 2021
She attended Davenport Central High School, graduating in 1970, and was a 1973 graduate of the University of Denver.
In early 2009 for 24 days ending on February 5 she swam several sections of the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
from the
Cape Verde Islands
Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...
off Africa to
Chacachacare
Chacachacare is an island in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, located at 10° 41' north latitude and 61° 45' west longitude. The island is in area.
It is one of the Bocas Islands, which lie in the ''Bocas del Dragón'' (''Dragons' Mouth ...
Island in
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...
off Venezuela (a total of roughly ), spending much of the time in a shark cage while swimming up to 8 hours a day, battling strong winds and waves up to 30 feet. Most accounts of her swim put her total distance close to 2000 miles. She had originally planned to swim to the
Bahamas
The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...
, but was blown off course.
Figge was a veteran marathon runner, but very knowledgeable about the effects of cold water and had trained extensively for the crossing with long swims, having previously attempted an 83 Km three day haul from Cay Sal Bank, Bahamas, to Marathon, Florida. She swam around nineteen of the twenty-four days she had scheduled to swim, on occasion cancelling a day of swimming due to weather. Lynne Cox, a veteran cold water swimmer felt Figge had an advantage swimming in a shark cage which may have increased her speed as much as 30%, but understood her need to use the cage. Another media source reports she swam 3400 kilometers, or roughly 2112 miles, very close to the distance previously cited.
Though the exact distance varied, several media sources put the distance between 1000–2000 miles, with several reporting 2000 miles.
Several major media outlets initially erroneously reported she swam the entire distance across the ocean. The claim was challenged by several sources, as mathematically impossible, as Figge would have had to swim over a day at about ten miles per hour – a physical impossibility. In an interview with the ''
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.
Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
'', Figge said she "never intended to swim the Atlantic." On February 9, she reported she planned to continue her swim from Trinidad on to the British Virgin Islands. She ate roughly 8000 calories a day, and her longest swim was 8 hours.Coto, Danica, "56 Year Old is First Woman to Swim Across Atlantic Ocean", ''The Burlington Free Press'', pg. 2. 8 February 2009
See also
* Guy Delage, who made an unverified claim to have swum across the Atlantic with the help of a kick board
*
Benoît Lecomte
Benoit Lecomte (born 1967) is a French-American long-distance swimmer who swam several sections of the Atlantic Ocean in 1998. Many major media outlets initially wrongly reported that he swam the entire distance across the ocean, but the claim wa ...
, the first person to swim stages across the Atlantic without a kick board
*
List of female adventurers
The women listed below are or were explorers or world travelers. They include naturalists, sailors, mountain climbers, dog sledders, swimmers, pilots, and underwater explorers. Astronauts are not included here but in the list of women astron ...