Vicki Keith’s Marathon Swim Story
It’s an honor that marathon swimmers around the world take time out of their day to sit down and talk to little old me and today it was my absolute privilege to spend an hour with world record holder… and that’s not just one world record, Vicki Keith holds 16 world records…
I recommend you set aside the time to read through Vicki’s accomplishments. Maybe you heard of the summer of 1988 that she swam across all 5 of the Great Lakes in a remarkable 61 days… or perhaps you’ve heard of one of her many butterfly crossings, including the English Channel and the Strait of Juan De Fuca, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Just pause for a minute and take stock.
As a child who paged through the Guinness Book of World Records myself, I’m particularly taken by Vicki’s drive to follow through. I remember contemplating an attempt of the longest continuous tread. I even envisioned what it would be like to stay at the pool after everyone else had gone home. I was probably 12 or 13. But somewhere along the line either my hopes were dashed, or I didn’t push hard enough.
After talking with Vicki Keith, I’m completely inspired to at least, as she recommends, “make yourself uncomfortable every single week.”
I hope our conversation moves you to action. Enjoy!
In her own words:
Dr. Vicki Keith C.M., O. Ont., L.L.D., ChPC
Vicki Keith is one of the most successful marathon swimmers in the history of the sport, holding an unprecedented sixteen world records. Constantly surpassing the records of other swimmers as well as previous records of her own, Vicki has become, to many, the face of marathon swimming both here in Canada and around the world. Her most recognized accomplishments include becoming the first person to swim across all five Great Lakes in 1988 and for being the only person to complete the 104 km double crossing of Lake Ontario.
After her marathon swimming career, Vicki took on a new challenge – coaching competitive swimming to athletes with physical disabilities. While coaching at Variety Village, Vicki found that swimmers with physical disabilities were invited to participate in only 3 meets a year…all of them only for athletes with disabilities. She immediately started pushing the boundaries, to get the team invited to able-bodied meets. Although there were some initial difficulties, the swimmers quickly became accepted and welcomed as equals. This pattern was continued by the Provincial and National bodies to the point that swimming is now the most integrated sport in Canada.
Vicki began her volunteer career at the age of 10, when she worked with a young boy with a physical disability at the YMCA in Ottawa. She has accepted roles on the board of directors of a number of organizations including Ontario Place and Variety Village. She has assisted on numerous selection committees including the Terry Fox Hall of Fame and Ontario Sports Awards. As a volunteer coach, Vicki is known for her coaching of competitive and open water swimmers, but she has also coached athletes in triathlon and track and field.
Vicki has coached 24 athletes with a disability to the National level in competitive swimming, 4 athletes to the international level, and 6 athletes to world records in marathon swimming. She has been selected to the coaching staff of 3 World Games and the Para Pan Am Games. Y Penguin members Chris Sergeant-Tsonos to 2 Canadian Records and a Pan-American record and Abi Tripp to multiple Canadian Records, a number of international competitions including the Paralympic Games and to 2 podium finishes on the international level.
Open water swimmers whom Vicki has coached include Carlos Costa, a double leg amputee, who became the first athlete with a disability to swim across Lake Ontario, Ashley Cowan, a 15 year old quadruple amputee who swam across Lake Erie in 2001, Terri Lynn Langdon, an athlete with Cerebral Palsy who set a speed record across Lake Erie, 15 year old Jenna Lambert, an athlete with Cerebral Palsy who became the first female swimmer with a disability to swim across Lake Ontario, and then Jenna’s younger sister Natalie, who became the youngest person to swim across Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, and the first to swim across Lake Erie using the grueling butterfly stroke. Vicki also coached her husband John Munro across Lake Erie and Lake Ontario where he became the oldest person to complete these crossings.
Vicki has been appointed as a member of the Order of Canada, in recognition of her outstanding achievements and service. She has received an honourary Doctorate from Queen’s University and is recognized by Coaches of Canada as a Chartered Professional Coach. In 1996 Vicki was inducted into the Terry Fox Hall of Fame, and in 2007 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. In 1998 her most famous arrival and departure point was renamed after her. The headlands of the Leslie Street Spit in Toronto are officially named Vicki Keith Point.
Vicki’s dream has always been to make a difference in other people’s lives. Among her many fundraising ventures, she raised $548,000 for Variety Village in 1988 and then, the following year she raised another $200,000 for Variety projects worldwide. In 2005, when the need for new opportunities for children with disabilities in Kingston, Ontario became apparent, Vicki came out of swimming retirement, and spent 63 hours and 40 minutes in Lake Ontario, completing 80.2 kilometers butterfly, setting 2 world records and raising $260,000 for the YMCA of Kingston. This brought her lifetime fundraising total to over one million dollars.
