Marilyn bell swimmer biography examples

Canadian swimmer and first person to swim nonstop across Lake Ontario.Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on October 19, 1937; eldest daughter of Sydney Thomas (an accounting clerk) and Grace (Phillips) Bell; attended St.

Mary's School, Toronto, and Loretta College School, Toronto.

On September 9, 1954, at 11:59 pm, a freckled, 119-pound teenager touched breakwater and was hauled ashore after a record 24 hour, 59 minute swim across the black, icy waters of Lake Ontario.

Canadian Marilyn Bell had begun the marathon at 11 pm the previous evening, competing against American Florence Chadwick and Canadian Winnie Roach Leuszler . (The Canadians were swimming in defiance of the Canadian National Exhibition [C.N.E.] rules that only sanctioned Americans for the competition.) At 4:30 in the morning, Chadwick and Leuszler had been hauled out of the water, ill and exhausted.

Battling 12-foot waves and blood-sucking lampreys, Bell was barely hanging on, swimming