Swimming in the Sink

July 25, 2016
Champion long-distance swimmer Cox (Open Water Swimming Manual) has been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and holds open-water swimming records around the globe. The author swims, sans wetsuit, in some of the most frigid waters on Earth, including Antarctica and the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. In her new memoir, Cox chronicles how her deep grief (following the deaths of both parents and her Labrador retriever) and a startling diagnosis of arterial fibrillation precipitated a severe health and emotional crisis in her life. “It seemed like I had to start all over again,” she writes. “I had prided myself on being an elite athlete, and now I had to start from zero. It was sad, sobering, and scary.” Cox vividly explains her struggle to recover after facing the options of death, a heart transplant, or life as an invalid. Two years later Cox began training again in open water, which began her return to emotional and physical health. Friends, faith, meditation, and counseling all helped as well. Cox’s narrative is straightforward and intimate, and she never succumbs to self-pity. This satisfying journey through a world-class athlete’s heart-centered crisis is a warm tale of recovery and even finding love.

July 1, 2016
An open water swimmer's memoir about how she survived a traumatic year marred by heartbreak and a life-threatening health crisis.Born covered in hair that made her look like "a little seal" and possessed of the remarkable ability to acclimatize easily to cold, often freezing water, Cox (Open Water Swimming Manual: An Expert's Survival Guide for Triathletes and Open Water Swimmers, 2013, etc.) seemed destined for the aquatic pursuits that defined her later life. As an adult, she successfully swam across the Bering Strait, the Beagle Channel, Disko Bay, and Lake Titicaca and became an unofficial goodwill ambassador between nations. Her metabolism was so efficient that she became the subject of numerous medical studies. But in 2012, Cox's amazing body began to falter. First, her feet began to swell. Then she developed an irregular heartbeat and severe cramping in both hands. At first, she thought her symptoms were stress-induced. Her mother had passed away a year earlier, and for 25 years, she had cared for her parents. Doctors told her that her prognosis for recovery was poor and that if her body did not respond to medication, she would need a heart transplant. Unwilling to "have my heart cut out of my body," Cox examined everything in her life, from her diet and personal habits to her friendships. She dispensed with all negative thinking and became more aware of "the things that were stressing me" so that she could handle them more appropriately. A few months later, her heart rate had become more normal and she was reacclimatizing her body to the cold by moving her hands and arms in a kitchen sink filled with ice water. Six months later, she had completely recovered. Not only was she able to swim again, but she also loved it more deeply than ever before. Told in straightforward language straight from the heart, Cox's story is a celebration of mindful living and a reminder that few things are ever permanently out of reach. A simple, inspiring memoir.

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Starred review from July 1, 2016

Open-water swimmer Cox's sixth book (Swimming in Antarctica; Grayson) adds to her list of inspiring and engaging autobiographical accounts about athletics and life. The first person to swim the Straits of Magellan and around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, the author confronts a new set of challenges in this title: the recent deaths of both parents and a beloved dog, then the breakdown of her own body. As Cox struggles with mysterious ailments, she keeps a coolheaded optimism throughout, acknowledging her challenges with a flowing, measured cadence. Finding that her life has become "arhythmic," she works to get "my heart, mind, and body back into their normal rhythm." The book is a reminder that for even the strongest and most solitary among us--and long-distance swimmers certainly qualify--the support of friends and family is crucial. Cox clearly adores those in her life and lovingly chronicles them here. VERDICT A feel-good nonfiction beach read for the athletic and nonathletic alike.--Valerie Hamra, Brooklyn

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2016
Cox was once an elite athlete, swimming long distances in extremely cold temperatures. But now the closest she had come to swimming since being diagnosed with a heart condition was plunging her hands into the kitchen sink. Cox achingly describes the betrayal she felt when she discovered her once well-tuned heart was firing erratically, just as she was preparing to strike out on her own after years caring for her ailing parents. Where once she forged a path through cold and choppy waters, from the dangerous strait between Argentina and Chile to Lake Titicaca high in the Andes mountains, now she could barely walk from her car to a restaurant. In contrast to her rhapsodic descriptions of swimming, Cox delivers the details of her medical treatment somberly. In her efforts to recover, she brings both the unique perspective of an athlete who spent a lifetime exploring her physical limits and the determination of someone who braved painful research into the body's ability to survive the cold. Her journey here proves the strength of her heart.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)