Marilyn Bell
Written by Gail Whiteside
Published by 50plus.com
Marilyn Bell captured
the hearts of Canadians in 1954 when she became the first person ever to
swim across Lake Ontario. She was 16 years old, and swam the distance of
52 kilometres. It was a gruelling task. For 21 hours, Marilyn had to fight
lamprey eels, choke on oil spills and do battle with high winds.
So what’s behind the famous swim? It started when a 34 year old American
swimmer, Florence Chadwick, was offered $10,000 to take on Lake Ontario by
Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition. Gus Ryder, the Toronto swim coach
who discovered Bell, managed to set her up as Chadwick's competitor.
Marilyn said she rose to the challenge to "uphold the honour of
Canada." After the race began on Sept. 9th, Chadwick quit after 20
kilometers. Bell persevered but says she has no memory of the last stretch
of the swim. She had reached the point of exhaustion. Now a 61-year-old
mother and grandmother, Marilyn had to quit swimming earlier this year due
to a bad back.
Since retiring from a teaching career, she now lives in New
Jersey and Key West. There is an unexpected sidebar to the Marilyn Bell
story. When she was growing up she says she was ‘a kid who never got
anything right’. She says she wasn’t a natural at swimming. She
didn’t even learn how to swim until she was nine. But when coach Gus
Ryder came into her life, he could see the potential in this spirited
young girl. He saw the fire in Marilyn Bell, and knew she had what it
takes to be a winning marathon swimmer.
Photo credit: Canada's Sports Hall of Fame
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