Katie Spotz

Spotz was born in Mentor, Ohio. She graduated from Mentor High School in 2005[3] and Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina, in 2008.[4]

In 2008, Spotz became the first person to swim the entire 325 mile (523 km) length of the Allegheny River, which runs between New York state and Pennsylvania. Accompanied by safety kayaker, James Hendershott, the two began on July 22 to hike the "stream" for 27 miles before starting at swimming depth on the river at Roulette, Pennsylvania.[5] They finished at the "Point" where the Allegheny and the Monongahela River join to form the Ohio River in Downtown Pittsburgh less than a month later, on August 21.[6][7]

On January 3, 2010, Spotz embarked on a solo ocean rowing crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, in a planned 2,473 mile westward route from Senegal to French Guiana. During her journey, her diet consisted of mostly chocolate bars. En route she altered the route, increasing the total distance by approximately 400 miles, setting Georgetown, Guyana as the terminus for a total distance of 2,817 miles.[8] Spotz altered course because weather conditions at her original destination were not favorable for an unassisted landing.[9] She completed the trip on March 14, 2010, to become the youngest person to ever row solo across the Atlantic Ocean and the only American to row solo from Africa to South America. Spotz is also only the second woman to have rowed solo across the Atlantic from mainland to mainland, following the January 2007 crossing by Sophie Macé of France who rowed from Saint Louis, Senegal, to Saint Laurent, French Guyana.

Spotz's boat, "Liv", is a 19-foot vessel that was used in a successful crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.[10] The boat was designed by British boat designer Phil Morrison, who had been asked by Scottish rower Chay Blyth, who himself rowed across the North Atlantic in 1966, to design a small, light boat capable of surviving extreme conditions. This design was later modified to a solo vessel.[11]

Five years after her Atlantic crossing, Spotz's book, Just Keep Rowing, which is co-authored by Mark Bowles, details the various lessons she learned during her 70-day journey. A portion of the proceeds from Just Keep Rowing will support the mission of partner, H2O for Life.

• Spotz, Katie; Mark Bowles (2015). Just Keep Rowing. Self-published. ISBN 0692474862.

• Official website
• Katie Spotz feature in WideWorld magazine
• NPR's Talk of the Nation interview
• NYTimes coverage of planned ocean crossing