Woman Who "Swam to Antarctica" to Visit Miss Porter's

Lynne Cox Will Speak at Dedication of New Squash & Pool Building

09/07/2007- Miss Porter's School

Lynne Cox, the first person to swim more than a mile in 32 degree water to the shore of Antarctica, will speak at the dedication of the new squash and pool building at Miss Porter's School on Friday, October 5, 2007.

Media are invited to the event, although it is not open to the public.

The dedication ceremony will be held 5:30-6:30 p.m. The building will be on view during a reception following the ceremony. The 27,000-square-foot facility, located on Garden Street, houses an eight-lane, 25-yard swimming pool and eight international squash courts, along with locker rooms, a lounge overlooking the Farmington River, coaching and administrative offices and an athletic training room.

Cox, who was inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame in 2000, has been featured on "60 Minutes" and the "Discovery Channel." She shattered men's and women's records for her 30-mile swim of the English Channel and the men's record for swimming the Catalina Channel. She was the first woman to swim the Cook Strait in New Zealand, the first person to swim Skagerrak, between Norway and Sweden, the first to swim the shark-infested waters around Cape of Good Hope, the first to swim the Strait of Magellan and the first person to swim Lake Titicaca from Bolivia to Peru. In 1987, she swam the Bering Strait. She is author of the "Swimming to Antarctica" and, most recently, "Grayson."

For Miss Porter's athletes competing in their sports has become easier. Swimmers and divers have been practicing and competing at Trinity College. In spite of the inconvenience, the team performed admirably, winning the 2006 Western New England Division II championship and breaking many pool records, including at the college pool. Squash players also faced a significant problem. The three original courts were built before the sport changed to international standards, leaving Miss Porter's students practicing on courts with very different specifications than they faced at other schools where they competed. Going from the three squash courts to eight will give each squash player more practice time.

Founded by Sarah Porter in 1843, Miss Porter's School is a college preparatory boarding and day school for 326 girls in grades nine through 12. Its diverse student body hails from 28 states and 13 foreign countries, with 11 percent international students and 25 percent students of color. Thirty-eight percent of students receive financial aid. You can learn more about Miss Porter's School at www.missporters.org.