在无法看见彼岸的时候,请坚信浓雾后的不远处一定是陆地……把你的目标放在心里!
When she looked ahead, Florence Chadwick saw nothing but a solid wall of fog1. Her body was numb2. She had been swimming for nearly sixteen hours.
Already she was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. Now, at age 34, her goal was to become the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast.
On that Fourth of July morning in 1952, the sea was like an ice bath and the fog was so dense3 she could hardly see her support boats.
Alongside Florence in one of the boats, her mother and her trainer offered encouragement. They told her it wasn't much farther. But all she could see was fog. They urged her not to quit. She never had...until then. With only a half mile to go, she asked to be pulled out.
Still warming her chilled4 body several hours later, she told a reporter,"Look, I'm not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I might have made it."It was not fatigue5 or even the cold water that defeated her. It was the fog. She was unable to see her goal.
Two months later, she tried again. This time, despite the same dense fog, she swam with her faith and her goal clearly pictured in her mind. She knew that somewhere behind that fog was land and this time she made it! Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, eclipsing6 the men's record by two hours!
当弗洛伦斯·查德威克朝前方看去时,除了一团浓雾,她什么也看不见。她的身体已经麻木,她游了快16个小时了。
她是第一位游泳往返英吉利海峡的女性。现在她已34岁了,她的目标是成为第一个从卡特林娜岛游到加利福尼亚海岸的女性。
1952年7月4日的早晨,大海就像个冰窖,雾浓得她连自己的支援船都看不见。
在靠近她的一艘船上,她的母亲和教练在不断鼓励她。他们告诉她离岸已经不太远了,但她的眼前只有雾。他们劝她不要放弃,她从未在中途放弃过……除了这次。她在离岸仅半英里处要求支援船把她拉上去。
几个小时后,她还在暖着她那冻僵了的身体,她告诉记者:"听着,我不是为自己辩解,但是如果我能看到陆地,我是可以成功的。"打败她的不是疲劳或者寒冷的海水,而是浓雾。她无法看到目标。
两个月后,她再一次尝试。这次,尽管雾依然很浓,但是她怀着坚定的信念,目标清晰地呈现在心中。她知道浓雾后的某个地方就是陆地,而这次她成功了!弗洛伦斯·查德维克成为第一个游过卡特林娜海峡的女性,而且还比男子纪录快了两个小时!