Vicki Keith Talks About Doing The Impossible On WOWSA Live

Sponsored by KAATSU Global, Lake Ontario, Can.

59-year-old Vicki Keith, C.M., O. Ont., LLD, ChPCa has done multiple truly epic marathon swims in her life – from swimming for over 5 days in a pool (129+ hours) to doing a two-way crossing of Lake Ontario in her native Canada.

Dr. Keith talked about her some of her many accomplishments with International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame chairman Ned Denison on today’s edition of WOWSA Live. Dr. Keith described the following:

* setting Guinness World Records in pools by breaking the existing records of Myrtle Huddleston and Charles “Zimmy” Zibelman
* understanding the cycle of hallucinations – that begin about the 80th hour in the water – and being able to determine between reality and fantasy
* being in a pool for 129 hours 45 minutes
* growing up near Lake Winnipeg and setting records in Lake Ontario and elsewhere because she never considers anything impossible
* generating interest in a swim if it were called impossible including doing butterfly crossings of the English Channel, Catalina Channel, Cook Strait, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Lake Winnipeg where she grew up
* her ways to avoid the pain of jellyfish stings
* receiving the Order of Canada
* raising money for kid with physical impairment
* self-coaching and self-motivating herself with weekly swimming goals
* changing people’s perceptions of what is possible
* coaching swimmers like Carlos Costa and Ashley Cowan who swm across Lake Erie

Note 1: Dr. Keith gave her interview in front of a painting of her swimming in Lake Superior.

Note 2: The photo in the video was taken by Kingston photographer Rob Mooy of Dr. Keith’s macerated skin on the bottom of her feet during her 80 km butterfly swim. “My feet were glowing white so at feeding break he asked if he could see them. What you see, is wrinkly beyond what you would normally see after a half hour soak in the bathtub.”

For more information about her unparalleled career and more interesting stories from her, visit Vicki Keith – Beside The Boat. Her TED Talk is posted below:


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