Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border spans the centre of the lake.
Marilyn Grace Bell Di Lascio is a Canadian retired long distance swimmer. She was the first person to swim across Lake Ontario and later swam the English Channel and Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Dr. Vicki Keith Munro, CM, O.Ont, LLD, ChPC is a Canadian retired marathon swimmer, coach and advocate for disabled athletes. Her accomplishments include the first crossing of all five Great Lakes, a 100-hour swim and the world record distance of 80.2 kilometers swum using the butterfly stroke. Many people consider Keith as the face of marathon swimming.
Diana Nyad is an American author, journalist, motivational speaker, and long-distance swimmer. Nyad gained national attention in 1975 when she swam around Manhattan in record time.
George Young was a Canadian marathon swimmer who, on 15–16 January 1927, became the first person to swim the 22 mile channel between Catalina Island and the mainland of California. Though familiar to the Toronto swimming community, Young was only seventeen and a relative unknown in America, lacking the national recognition of a number of his competitors. Around three thousand spectators on Catalina Island watched the race begin. Young's 22 mile swim began with the sound of a starter's pistol on the Northeastern edge of Catalina Island at the narrow point of the Harbor at Isthmus Cove at 11:21 AM on Saturday, January 15, 1927, and ended the next morning after 15 hours 44 minutes at 3:06 AM on the rocky shores of Point Vicente Lighthouse, in Rancho Palos Verdes, South of downtown Los Angeles.
Clifford Douglas "Cliff" Lumsdon Jr., was a Canadian world champion marathon swimmer.
Karen Burton is an American former competition swimmer who specialized in long-distance freestyle and open water events. While competing in the 25-kilometer open-water event, she represented the United States at the 1998 World Aquatics Championships in Perth, Western Australia, and took a bronze medal in the 1991 World Aquatics Championships. In Open Water championships sponsored by USA Swimming, she placed first in six national open water swimming champion competitions, which included three 15 km (9.3-mile) races and one 25 km (15.5-mile) race.
Swapnali Yadav is a 23-year-old Andheri woman. She is the youngest competitor and the first from India to win the women's category in the Kimberley National Lake Argyle Swim in Kununurra, Western Australia. Popularly known as India's 'Little Mermaid' in the world of swimming., she won the first Kimberley National Lake Argyle Swim that was held on 30 April 2011 in Australia's second-biggest artificial lake.
Annaleise Carr of Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada, was the youngest person to swim across Lake Ontario by the "traditional route" on Sunday, August 19, 2012 at the age of 14.
Judith de Nijs is a Dutch swimmer. After setting a European record in the 400 m medley event in 1961 she shifted to marathon swimming and was ranked world No. 1 in 1964–1968 and 1970. For her achievements she was inducted to the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame.
Chloë McCardel is an open water swimmer and swim coach from Melbourne, Australia.
Linda Carol McGill, also known by her married name Linda Kruk, is an Australian former competition swimmer noted both for achievements at the Commonwealth Games and in long-distance swimming. At age 30, McGill set a record for the fastest and only swim around Hong Kong Island which stood for over 40 years, and still holds the record for the fastest swim in a counterclockwise direction.
Patricia E. Thompson, later known by her married name Patty Bogumil, is a Canadian former freestyle swimmer. She was a member of the Canadian freestyle and medley teams that won a silver and a bronze medal at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. Thompson competed at the 1964 Olympics in the 400-metre freestyle and 4×100-metre freestyle relay events, and finished in seventh place in the relay.
Bhakti Sharma is an Indian Open water swimmer.
Margaret Isobel Lister is a former New Zealand swimmer who represented her country at the 1950 Empire Games in Auckland. She later took up long-distance swimming, and in 1955 became the first person to swim the length of Lake Taupō.
Sarah Thomas is an American marathon swimmer. She is the first person to complete four consecutive crossings of the English Channel and the first person to swim a current-neutral swim over 100 miles. She holds the world record for longest, second-, and third-longest current-neutral swims, and various other records in both fresh and salt water categories.
Abigail "Abi" Tripp is a Canadian Paralympic swimmer. She has won bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games and the World Para Swimming Championships, and won silver at the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships. She has represented Canada at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Paralympics, and will compete in swimming at the 2024 Paralympic Games.
Stella Taylor was an American long-distance swimmer born in Bristol, England, best known for crossing the English Channel twice and holding Guinness Book of Records recognition as the oldest woman to swim across the Channel. She made her first English channel crossing in August 1973 in 15:25, from England to France, when she was around the age of 43, repeating the swim in 1975 in 18:15 at the age of 45.
Meenakshi Pahuja is an Indian lecturer and marathon swimmer. After a successful career as a competitive swimmer, she became a teacher at Lady Shri Ram College, and later entered open water swimming. She received a 2018 Nari Shakti Puraskar award.
Margaret Ravoir was an American swimmer who completed in the Olympics and would become best known for winning the widely attended Canadian National Exhibition women's 10-mile swim in Lake Ontario, each of the years from 1930 to 1932.
