Swimming to Antarctica_ Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer - Lynne Cox [133]
Four months later, I got a call from a man who identified himself only as Viktor from the Soviet embassy. He asked me what my time was for swimming the Bering Strait. I told him two hours, six minutes, and eleven years. He thanked me and hung up.
The next evening I received a call from my aunt Jeannine in New York City. “Are you watching television?” she asked. She sounded so excited.
I said yes, I was watching the news; President Gorbachev and President Reagan were meeting at the White House, and they were about to sign the INF Missile Treaty. Both of our countries were going to start reducing their stockpiles of nuclear arms.
For the next three hours I sat with my folks, glued to the television. President Gorbachev and President Reagan appeared with Raisa Gorbachev and Nancy Reagan. President Reagan spoke about this first history-making meeting at the White House, and then President Gorbachev made a toast. They raised their glasses and President Gorbachev said, “Last summer it took one brave American by the name of Lynne Cox just two hours to swim from one of our countries to the other. We saw on television how sincere and friendly the meeting was between our people and the Americans when she stepped onto the Soviet shore. She proved by her courage how close to each other our peoples live.” Later in the toast he would add that he saw the swim as a symbol of improving relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Shortly after that, Italian television invited me to Rome for television interviews. A few days later, Pope John Paul asked me to meet with him at the Vatican. Meanwhile, through Claire Richardson, at a party at my home, I had met Dr. Gabriella Miotto. She was a long-time friend of Claire’s, who spoke fluent Italian. Even though we had talked for only five minutes, I thought she was a fine person. So when I got the invitation to go to Rome, since I didn’t have a spouse or agent, I called up Gabriella and asked if she would like to accompany me as my interpreter. Gabriella was in the middle of doing her residency in a small farming town near Bakersfield, working with people who couldn’t afford medical care. She said she would talk to a friend and see if she could get her to cover her schedule for the ten days that Italian television had invited me to be in Rome.
Our trip to Rome would be unbelievable. I got to talk to the pope about swimming. A fine swimmer himself, he told me his favorite places to swim. He knew all about the Bering Sea swim and gave me a special blessing.
Then I was asked to meet with President Reagan at the White House in the Oval Office. While I was waiting to meet with him, Ted Turner from CNN came out of the office. He was with a colleague. I had worn a Goodwill Games pin on my dress as a way to acknowledge Walsh’s and Turner’s support, and he saw the pin. Turner was an avid sailor, and he appreciated the significance of swimming across the Bering Strait.
22
Siberia’s Gold Medal
Swimming across the Bering Strait changed everything for me. Now my goal was not only to do something that had never been done before while providing data for cold research, but also to establish bridges between borders. My swims became more three-dimensional, more complex, and, in my mind, far more significant. It seemed to me that a relationship with a country is like a relationship with a person; it’s something that one must continue working on and developing. Even before I made the Bering Strait swim I knew that if I succeeded, I had to continue to try to do another difficult and symbolic swim that would bring our countries together. And so I looked at Lake Baikal, the jewel of Siberia, the deepest lake in the world, and the source of inspiration for Russian poems, literature, and songs.
Because of the success of the swim across the Bering Strait, in spring of 1988, the Soviets invited me to Moscow to talk about future projects. They were willing to listen to any idea I had. Actually, as soon