AP Credits 'First Woman to Swim Atlantic' for Impossible 2,100-mile, 25-day Crossing

Well, this sports feat is one for the record books.

Not as a legitimate accomplishment, mind you. No, this story is a leading candidate to win the "Biggest Sports Hoax Ever Swallowed by a Wire Service" prize.

Danica Coto of the Associated Press got duped into believing that 56 year-old Jennifer Figge had completed a 2,100-mile swim across the Atlantic Ocean in a jaw-dropping 25 days (HT to JammieWearingFool via Hot Air Headlines):

56-year-old becomes first woman to swim Atlantic
Feb 8, 12:52 pm EST

Jennifer Figge pressed her toes into the Caribbean sand, exhilarated and exhausted as she touched land this week for the first time in almost a month.

Reaching a beach in Trinidad, she became the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean — a dream she’d had since the early 1960s, when a stormy trans-Atlantic flight got her thinking she could don a life vest and swim the rest of the way if needed.

The 56-year-old left the Cape Verde Islands off Africa’s western coast on Jan. 12, swimming about 2,100 miles (3,380 kilometers) through strong winds and waves of up to 30 feet (9 meters).

..... “I was never scared,” Figge said. “Looking back, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I can always swim in a pool.”

..... Figge woke most days around 7 a.m., eating pasta and baked potatoes while she and the crew assessed the weather. Her longest stint in the water was about eight hours, and her shortest was 21 minutes. Crew members would throw bottles of energy drinks as she swam; if the seas were too rough, divers would deliver them in person. At night she ate meat, fish and peanut butter, replenishing the estimated 8,000 calories she burned a day.

..... Figge arrived on Trinidad’s Chacachacare Island, an abandoned leper colony, on Feb. 5 at 5:20 p.m.

Chris Chase at the Fourth-Place Medal sports blog pointed out earlier today that there were just a few problems with the story:

..... Cape Verde is at least 2,400 miles, not 2,100, from Trinidad.  And the African islands are about 500 miles off the western coast of the continent, meaning Figge had a huge head start on her trip across the Atlantic. (It'd be like somebody saying they ran across America after starting in Cincinnati.)

Those are trivial though. The real issue stemmed from the fact that swimming 2,100 miles in 25 days is impossible. (Some newspapers picked up on this.) It's infinitely more impossible when somebody only spends 21 minutes swimming during one of those 25 days. Michael Phelps swimming his fastest would take about 20 days to cover that distance. And that's his fastest pace, sustained for three weeks, without ever stopping. Impossible.

Yet, somehow, the AP ran the story even though a few seconds of thought and a pocket calculator was enough to disprove it.

AP issued a correction Tuesday:

In stories on Feb. 1, 7 and 8, about Jennifer Figge's long-distance swim in the Atlantic, The Associated Press reported erroneously that she had swum across the ocean. Figge swam only a fraction of the 2,100-mile journey. The rest of the time, she rested on her crew's westward-sailing catamaran. Her spokesman, David Higdon, told The AP on Tuesday that her total swimming distance has not been calculated yet, but that due to ocean hazards including inclement weather, he estimates she swam about 250 miles.

I would personally feel better if somone would re-check that stimulus bill that is currently making its way through Congress. I'm concerned that it might involve spending $8 trillion, instead of the somewhat under $1 trillion the AP and the rest of the press have been reporting.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.