Vicki Keith celebrates 30 years since swimming across the Great Lakes

It’s been three decades since 57-year-old Vicki Keith took on an amazing feat. In August of 1988, she embarked on a journey that took her across all five Great Lakes. Gazing out at the harbourfront in Gananoque where she now lives with her husband, she says it feels like yesterday.

“It feels so long ago but it also feels like just yesterday,” Keith says. “It’s amazing to look back and realize I accomplished it.”

The retired Canadian marathon swimmer was the first person to ever make the long trip. It took two months for Keith to do it, battling high waters, swimming in the pitch black and even suffering from hallucinations. She tells Global News although it was tough at times, and people doubted the task, she still believed.

“The experts told me it was impossible, and I just decided to not believe what they were saying and just believe in the possibility.”

Through those obstacles in the water, the swimmer says Canadians were able to relate to her and her perseverance to achieve her goal.

“I think that people relate to it in the swimming aspect, but they relate to it even more so in what life challenges are brought to us and how we overcome them.”

Swimming across all five of the Great Lakes started as a joke from her friends, when she just finished her goal of double-crossing Lake Ontario. Once she heard the idea, Keith says, she had to try it.

“My friends said it was hilarious if I swam across all five lakes. The second I heard it, I knew it was right,” she says. “The next day, I went out and bought a map of the Great Lakes and put it on my wall.”

The swimmer then embarked on the journey to help raise funds for children with physical disabilities, raising nearly $550,000. It was from there, she doubled that during her swimming career, now passing on her experience through public speaking, fundraisers and other projects, including the Penguin swim program at the YMCA in Kingston.

“It’s really fun to be a part of each child’s dream, and be able to provide something to them so that they can excel at something that is important to them.”

Keith has crossed more than just the five Great Lakes. She also holds world records and awards for crossing many bodies of water, including doing the butterfly across Sydney Harbour, the Catalina Channel and the English Channel.

After covering many bodies of water, she says nothing is impossible.

“It’s how we look at it and how we decide to handle it that makes us successful.”