First person to swim Lake Winnipeg still going strong

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/08/2020 (2118 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Early on the morning of Aug. 19, 1955, Kathie McIntosh waded into the water of Lake Winnipeg and went for a swim. Nothing unusual about that. What was unusual was that she remained in the water for 16 hours and 42 minutes and became the first person to successfully swim across the lake.

Radio station CKRC had put up a prize of $1,000 for the first person to complete the swim. Five men entered the contest but McIntosh, a 20-year-old from Norwood, chose not to participate in the radio’s promotion.

The Winnipeg Tribune had secretly approached McIntosh and offered the same amount if she gave the paper the exclusive story. She started her swim from Grand Marais on the east side of the lake. The goal was to swim about 18 miles and reach the shore near Winnipeg Beach.
Quebec servicemen Camile Filion and Antonin Belley, who were stationed at RCAF Gimli, and Jim Brennand and Norman Buckboro, both of Winnipeg, took off from Grand Marais ahead of McIntosh. The fifth swimmer, Al Sweet from Winnipeg Beach, chose to challenge the lake from the west to the east.

McIntosh proved to be the strongest and most determined swimmer. She was accompanied on her trek by her father, Bruce, and her boyfriend, Ed Sokol, paddling a canoe. She said she did not see any of the men during her swim. Buckboro dropped out after three miles, Belley after nearly three hours, and Sweet stayed in the lake for four hours. Brennand, who took an early lead, lasted five hours. Filion swam for 10 hours and made it about halfway across the lake.

McIntosh said the most difficult part was the last two kilometres when she was so exhausted and could see the water tower at Winnipeg Beach from so far away. As she neared shore, many boats joined the procession and thousands of supporters along the shoreline cheered her arrival. They were disappointed when she was immediately hauled into a boat and taken away to Gimli for a medical examination.

Even though her swim took place 65 years ago, Kathie remembers how she felt when she reached her goal.

“I can remember every second of floundering out of the water,” she said. “I remember the noise and commotion but was too tired to feel very excited.”       

Before that summer, McIntosh had never done any long-distance swimming. While at Clear Lake with family and friends, her father dared her to swim the 10 miles across the lake.

“So I did,” she said.

A few weeks later he suggested she try to swim Lake Winnipeg. She quit her job as a legal secretary and took on the challenge. Her first attempt to beat the lake took place on Sun., Aug. 14. Four hours in, the canoe her father and Sokol were in was swamped and they had to be hauled into a Winnipeg Free Press boat. Kathie continued when the newspaper’s staff told her they had chocolate bars for her as nourishment. Her battle against the high waves and 30-mile-an-hour winds lasted for five more hours before the lake won and she let them haul her into the boat. Just a few days later she won.

When Kathie (McIntosh) Leitch turned 50 and was living in Edmonton, she began training as a triathlete.

She has entered about 25 Olympic distance triathlons and competed in the Hawaii Ironman when she was 55. She said she was never very good, very slow, but loved everything about the training and competing.

She has lived in Vancouver since 2002, where she paddled Dragonboat for eight years and started cycling Gran Fondos (mass long-distance cycling events). Her successes include the Vancouver to Whistler Gran Fondo of 122 km and the 150 km Banff Gran Fondo when she was 80.

On Aug. 1, Leitch did an 80-km ride with her bike club.

“I have inherited some strange kind of stamina,” she said. “It is in my genes and I can’t take credit for it. It has always been there.”

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@canstarnews.com