TORONTO — Six decades after she swam across it, Marilyn Bell was back on Lake Ontario on Wednesday — but this time on a ferry named for her.
Bell, 77, made the short journey aboard the Marilyn Bell I between Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport and the foot of Bathurst Street after arriving on a flight from Newark, New Jersey.
In 1954, at 16, Bell became the first person to swim across Lake Ontario. Setting out from Niagara-on-the-Lake, she completed the 52-kilometre swim in a minute under 21 hours. The successful journey earned Bell the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year.
A year later, Bell became the youngest person to swim the English Channel.
Upon retiring from long distance swimming, Bell married Joe Di Lascio and moved to New Jersey, where she had four children. Widowed in 2007, Bell still lives in New Jersey.
She is back in Toronto to participate in the Pan Am Games Torch Relay on Friday afternoon. Bell will receive the torch from Katherine Cullen at the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal at 12:25 p.m. and pass it to former competitive swimmer Cynthia Berringer.
Inducted into the Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1958 and the Canadian Swimming Hall of Fame in 1993, Bell was presented with the Order of Ontario in 2002.
On the 30th anniversary of her crossing, the City of Toronto named a park on the shore of Lake Ontario in her honour.
The ferry serving Billy Bishop Airport was named in honour of Bell in 2010 after the Toronto Port Authority asked the public to choose a name.
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