56 year old Jennifer Figge became the first woman to swim the Atlantic when she reached Trinidad on February 5, 2009.

It was many years ago in 1926 when 19 year old Gertrude Caroline Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel. She is quoted as saying, “People said women couldn’t swim the Channel but I proved they could.” Perhaps a few people may have said the same about Jennifer Figge for any number of reasons but when she reached the beach in Trinidad she proved them wrong as well.

Jennifer Figge had dreamed of this moment nearly fifty years ago in the midst of an airplane trip. As many kids dream of adventure, young Jennifer Figge dreamed of survival if her plane went down and figured she could swim the ocean in a life vest if need be.

It took Jennifer Figge nearly a month after starting her swim on January 12. She has been surviving on a diet of about 8,000 calories a day. Compare this to the average 2,500 calories an adult male needs a day to maintain his energy.

Knowing now that she can swim the Atlantic, having completed her trip from the Cape Verde Islands of the African west coast to Trinidad in the Caribbean, she will now continue her swim trek from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands.

The history of swimming the globe from Captain Matthew Webb’s first successful attempt of the English Channel in 1875 to Gertrude Ederle’s being the first woman to succeed at the same in 1926, and then the noteworthy accomplishment of Benoit Lecomte to swim the Atlantic in 1998. Benoit Lecomte’s accomplishment is the most prominent considering it was nearly 4,000 miles compared to Jennifer Figge’s 2,100 miles, when he swam from Massachusetts to France in 73 days.

Do not think that only grown men and women are capable of incredible feats. Indian born Kutraleeswaran was 12 when he swam six waterways in 1994 to beat Mihir Sen’s record of swimming five channels in a calendar year.

Credit for youngest marathon swimmer goes to Swapnali Yadav of Mumbai who swam the Messinikos Gulf in Greece in 2007 with much controversy surrounding her age of only 8 years and 7 months. As in many sports competitions, her age and if it is the right thing to let a young child do, is the discussion of the day.