THORNHILL SWIMMER Jade Scognamillo recently became the youngest person to swim across Lake Ontario. On July 31, the 15-year-old Vaughan Aquatic Club member completed the 52-kilometre swim from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Toronto in just under 20 hours.
Scognamillo now holds three world records after becoming the youngest and fastest swimmer to cross Lake Erie last summer.
Born in Britain, Scognamillo first got the idea for the crossing after seeing a plaque listing the names of those who had completed the swim after coming to Canada. The then-11-year-old immediately told her mom she wanted to add her name to the list.
“Lake Ontario was always my goal,” she said. “That’s what I wanted to do.” And along the way Scognamillo raised $35,000 for the neonatal unit at Sick Kids Hospital.
One of Scognamillo’s coaches, Nancy Black, trained with the teen for the last year and a half. They worked on both physical and mental fitness, as well as nutrition. At times, training was six days a week for up to seven hours a day.
“If you’re taking on this kind of coaching endeavour, it’s a bit more personal than coaching a team,” Black said. “I would say I love her. We’ve spent a lot of time together, even more so this year.”
While she hasn’t ruled out tackling the remaining three Great Lakes, Scognamillo said there is another swim goal in her sights.
“I know that they’ve introduced a 10-kilometre marathon race now at the Olympics, so at this point I guess I can go either way,” she said. “I’m not ruling it out.”