From Athlete to Adventure Writer

Lynne Cox and Dr. Gabriella Miotto

Thursday, 10 Nov 2011 at 7:00 pm – Sun Room, Memorial Union

Lynne Cox, athlete and author of Swimming to Antarctica, Grayson, and South with the Sun, is known for her unique ability to perform open-water swims in frigid waters. She has used her endurance swims as tools of diplomacy to promote cooperation between countries and is the recipient of the Susan B. Anthony Award for Leadership. She was inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame in 2000. Dr. Gabriella Miotto, is a practicing family physician and served as Lynne Cox's personal physician on several of her open-water swims. She specializes in community and integrative medicine and uses poetry, art and dance therapies with her patients. Her photographs from Cox's Antarctic swims were featured in The New Yorker. Their joint presentation will include a slide show of those images and footage from the Antarctic swims. Part of the Women and Gender Studies 35th Anniversary Celebration.

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Lynne Cox completed her first open-water swim at age 14, when she swam across the Catalina Channel - 27 miles - with a group of teenagers from Seal Beach, California. In 1972, at age 15, Lynne swam across the English Channel and shattered the men's and women's world records with a time of 9 hours and 57 minutes. She was the first person to perform many swims worldwide, including across the 42-degree F waters of the Strait of Magellan; between three of the Aleutian Islands; around the Cape of Good Hope; and 1.2 miles in Antarctica, from the ship the Orlova to Neko Harbor.

Her efforts to promote diplomacy and peace have included swims across the Bering Strait, opening the US-Soviet Border for the first time in 48 years; across the Beagle Channel between Argentine and Chile; across the Spree River between the newly united German Republics; and through the Gulf of Aqaba from Egypt to Israel and from Israel to Jordan, tracing the progress of peace between the three countries.

Dr. Gabriella Miotto, a family physician for more than twenty-five years, has practiced in California and Alaska. She is currently on staff at the Children's Clinic in Long Beach, California. Miotto is also a humanitarian, activist and poet. She has worked with refugees in Kosovo and Guatemala and has lectured on health care and human rights at Amnesty International as well as at universities and hospitals across the country. Her work appears in Pop Art: An Anthology of Southern California Poetry.

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This lecture was made possible in part by the generosity of F. Wendell Miller, who left his entire estate jointly to Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. Mr. Miller, who died in 1995 at age 97, was born in Altoona, Illinois, grew up in Rockwell City, graduated from Grinnell College and Harvard Law School and practiced law in Des Moines and Chicago before returning to Rockwell City to manage his family's farm holdings and to practice law. His will helped to establish the F. Wendell Miller Trust, the annual earnings on which, in part, helped to support this activity.

Cosponsored By:

• Athletic Department
• Biological Sciences Club
• Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology
• English
• Environmental Studies
• Kinesiology
• Kinesiology and Health Club
• LAS Miller Lecture Fund
• MFA Program in Creative Writing & the Environment
• Marine Biology Club
• Pre-Medical Professions Club
• The Vagina Warriors
• Women and Gender Studies Program
• Writers Bloc
• Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)