Born: February 26th, 1961
Hometown: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Sport: Marathon Swimming
Once called the “Lady of the Lakes,” Variety Village Aquatic Coach and swimmer, Vicki Keith, has coached more than 20 athletes with disabilities to the national level in competitive swimming, and is considered one the greatest marathon swimmers of all time. This is due to her ability to swim some of the world’s most challenging bodies of water, including the Great Lakes, which she was the first person to swim, and the English Channel. She is also the only person to complete the 104-kilometer double-crossing of Lake Ontario. For her efforts, she holds 16 world records, and has achieved over 41 honours and awards, including being inducted into both the Terry Fox (1996) and Ontario Sports (2005) Halls of Fame.
Vicki started her career as a lifeguard, which eventually led her to competitive swimming. Following her world-record crossing of the Kingston waterfront, most of her swims were a part of a fundraising effort. This includes tallying about $800,000 for Variety Village, including $600,000 towards its state-of-the-art pools: “Vicki helped them start building a pool because she understood the value and the freedom that water offers anybody, but especially somebody who has a disability or uses a mobility device. To them, water is true freedom.”
After leaving professional swimming, Vicki worked at Variety and was introduced to a whole new realm of coaching—Para-coaching. Going forward, it became her calling to coach people with disabilities and to help them achieve their dreams. Since then, she’s coached Abi Tripp (an 18 year old with cerebral palsy) at the World Para Swimming Championships in London, England and Tokyo Paralympic games, and Ashley Cowan, a quadruple amputee, to swim across Lake Erie at age 15. She also coached, Carlos Costa, the first physical-challenged person to swim across Lake Ontario.
Now retired, Vick lives in Kingston, ON, where she’s partnered with the YMCA to for the Kingston “Penguins Aquatic Club,” a swim team for children with physical disabilities and their able-bodied siblings: “Any chance to be in Lake Ontario is my joy. Living on Lake Ontario and having the lake right on my doorstep is awesome.” Her goal is to give swimmers with “confidence, self-esteem, friendships, and leadership skill.”