Vicki Keith

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Vicki Keith, C.M., O.Ont. (born 26 February, 1961 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian ultra marathon swimmer. She is considered one of the greatest marathon swimmers of all time.

She currently holds 16 world records and has received over 41 honours and awards, having crossed many of the world's most challenging bodies of water. To date, she has raised over $1,000,000 to help children with physical disabilities. Retired from marathon swimming since 1991, Keith continues to raise awareness and funds for programs and projects to help children with physical disabilities and makes public appearances as an inspirational speaker.

She came out of retirement to attempt a new world record on August 5, 2005. Her goal was to swim 52 miles from Oswego, New York to Kingston, Ontario, Canada. However, her attempt was cut short due to high waves. Just before leaving the water, she was averaging only one kilometre an hour because of waves more than two metres tall. If Keith had continued, the wind and waves would have added 30 more hours to her expected 48-hour swim.

Two weeks after her unsuccessful attempt, Keith was back in the water. This time the route was a shore line swim that saw her travel from Point Petre in Prince Edward County to Long Point, then diagonally to the north shore of Amherst Island, along Amherst Island to Griffin Point, across to Fairfield Park and then along the shore to Lake Ontario Park. She completed 80.2 kilometres, setting a new world record for distance butterfly. The swim originally predicted to take 48 hours took 63 hours and 40 minutes (over 2 ½ days). Keith had to fight high winds and waves, strong currents, cold temperatures, and hallucinations as she pushed beyond what most believed feasible to accomplish her goal.

Swimming world records

First Ever Crossing of all five Great Lakes (completed in a 2 month period)
The first and only double crossing of Lake Ontario
Longest Solo Swim (Distance) 94 kilometres
129 hours, 45 minutes continuous swimming (pool record)
Circumnavigation of Sydney Harbour (butterfly)
Crossing of the Juan de Fuca Straight in British Columbia (butterfly)
Crossing of Lake Ontario (butterfly)
Crossing of Catalina Channel (butterfly)
First butterfly swim across the English Channel
Most crossings of Lake Ontario (6)
Longest Solo Swim (Time) 63 hours 40 minutes
Greatest Distance Butterfly (Male or Female) 80.2 Kilometres

External links

[Vicki's Web Site "Penguins can fly"]
A page about Vicki Keith at the [Solo Swims of Ontario site]
[An Article about the new plans]
Check out this page with past articles written about Vicki Keith http://www.penguinscanfly.ca/index.cfm?page=media_library
Editorial on Vicki Keith http://www.kingstonthisweek.com/webapp/sitepages/gencontent.asp?contentID=121948&catname=Editorial

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