Ready to Jump in Lake : Lynne Cox Expected to Make Long, Cold Swim in Soviet Union This Weekend

A reporter from Pravda named Vladimir asked Lynne Cox, “What do you think of nuclear holocaust?”

“We’re here to generate good will and friendship so there won’t be any,” Cox said.

For her part, Cox, recalling the Eskimo slippers the Soviets gave her when she landed on Big Diomede Island in the Bering Strait, had been waiting a year to ask, “How did you know what size I wore?”

“It was intuition,” a Soviet official replied, unconvincingly.

So goes the exchange of ideas as the 31-year-old Los Alamitos woman plies the coldest waters in the world in her one-woman mission to thaw cultural and philosophical gaps between the two superpowers.

Today the Soviets will fly her and a five-person support team via Aeroflot, the government airline, 2,600 miles east across the Urals to Asia and the city of Irkutst near Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia. This weekend she will attempt to swim the world’s deepest lake--a feat no Soviet has attempted.

According to Vitaly V. Medyanikov, senior coach of the Soviet swimming federation, the Baikal water temperature never gets above 11.4 degrees centigrade (53 Fahrenheit) and is expected to be between 8 and 9 (46 to 48.5) for her attempt.

It was 43 to 44, dipping to 38 near the end, when Cox swam the 2.7 miles from Little Diomede to Big Diomede last year, but this swim will be longer.

She’s been working out alongside recreational swimmers in the 1980 Olympic indoor pool, where the slogan “Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher, stronger)” still inspires the Muscovites.

“Yeah, longer, colder, tougher,” Cox said Sunday before doing her laps.

How long she doesn’t know yet. She’ll start planning such details when she gets her first look at Baikal Tuesday--if necessary, resisting subtle Soviet pressure to exploit the attempt for maximum benefit.

Medyanikov was one of the dozen Soviets who greeted Cox when she landed on the rocky shore of Big Diomede.

He said then, in broken English, “She is a hero.”

He says now that the Soviets hope this event will assist a push to encourage swimming in their country.

“We are saying, ‘It is better to swim than to walk,’ ” Medyanikov said, alternately talking in English and through an interpreter during a press conference at the offices of Soviet Sport, a daily publication with 5 million circulation in 122 countries.

“For our program, it’s very important because this swim will give identity for the sport. There are not enough swimming pools (in the Soviet Union).”

The Olympic facility, which seats 8,500, is among the finest in the world but one of only 90 in Moscow and 2,500 in the Soviet Union, according to Medyanikov, who compared that to 3 million in the United States.

So the Soviets are actively promoting the event.

“We’re expecting a very big (turnout) for this,” Medyanikov said. “Ten thousand people will witness the finish.”

He paused and smiled, adding, “If it rains, 5 or 6 thousand.”

The Soviets say the shortest distance across the 380-mile-long lake is 40 kilometers (25 miles).

“That’s 10 times as far as the last (Bering Strait) swim,” Cox said.

Medyanikov has proposed a possible 16-kilometer (10-mile) route for Cox from the edge of Cape Tolstiy at the south end of the lake across the mouth of the Angara River--the only river emptying Baikal--to the lakefront village of Listvyanka, where the crowd would be waiting.

“This isn’t final,” Medyanikov added, tactfully. “Lynne is the only one who will set the distance.”

And Cox was not about to commit herself to any plan until she had a chance to check the conditions at the lake.

“(Medyanikov) is going to recommend areas, and we can look and decide,” Cox said.

Early in her 18-year career, Cox held the records for the English and San Pedro Channels, and then branched out over the years to swim literally in every corner of the globe.

Baikal won’t be the longest or coldest swim she has attempted but could be the longest cold swim of all.

Medyanikov said no Soviet has attempted it “not because swimming is not popular but because the water is very cold.”

Cox also could find herself in a time bind. She and her party are booked to return to Moscow next Monday and to return home the next day.

Ideally, she would like to allow herself maximum time to train in Baikal, then swim Sunday. Meanwhile, she has been training in the 50-meter, 80-degree indoor Olympic pool, which has claimed 10 world and 22 Olympic records but has done nothing to acclimate her to chill.

“I’ve never had less than seven days (in cold water) before a cold-water swim,” she said. “Also, because it’s fresh water you have to work harder. The idea is to go as late as possible.”

But as the Siberian summer disintegrates into autumn, the weather is unreliable. Does she gamble and wait until Sunday or go on the first good day she finds?

Cox expressed other concerns, including escort boats. For the Bering Strait she rented two walrus-skin umiaks from the Eskimos.

“Will there be life jackets for everybody?” she asked. “Are there any animals in the lake that might bother me?”

“Nyet, “ Medyanikov replied, laughing. “It’s not Loch Ness.”

There are some unusual fresh-water seals, including the nearly extinct Barguzin seal endemic to the lake, but they aren’t considered a threat.

Medyanikov assured Cox that there will be proper medical support, including a portable electrocardiogram with defibrillator and warming gear.

Finally, Nick V. Domblovsky of the national daily Soviet Russia asked Cox why she decided to swim in the Soviet Union.

“I looked at the swim last year as bridging the gap between two countries,” she said. “I looked at this swim as continuing to close the gap.

“All of us have certain talents, and if we can develop them we can do a lot of positive things.”