Jaimie Monahan swims from US to Canada

On Monday 10 July 2017, Jaimie Monahan of New York, NY swam the 25-mile distance on Lake Memphremagog between Newport, VT and Magog, QC in 14 hours and 18 minutes.  She left the Newport City Dock at 5:53am under cloudy skies and arrived in Magog as the sun was setting at 8:11 pm.

Monahan is a world renowned ultra-marathon swimmer, a world champion winter swimmer and an accomplished ice swimmer. She won the 2016 Barra Award for Best Overall Year by the Marathon Swimmers Federation and the 2016 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year award from the World Open Water Swimming Association.  She is the first person to complete the Ice Seven Challenge, swimming a mile in sub 5 C water on all seven continents, the final swim being in Argentina on 2 July 2017. Read an interview with Jaimie in the August edition of Outdooor Swimmer, on sale 3 August.

Winds were light and from the south west.  Rain was heavy at times, but the slight threat of a thunderstorm never materialised.  Water temperature ranged from 70 to 71 F.  Arik Thormahlen, also of New York, crewed for her.  Phil White of Kingdom Games piloted the wooden dory, Django, and made the arrangements for pre-authorisation of her clearance across the international border into Canada.

Monahan’s swim kicks off what is scheduled to be a record breaking number of border busting swims on Lake Memphremagog during the summer season. On 29 July, 39 swimmers are signed up for the 25 km swim from Newport into Canada, around Province Island and back to Newport as part of Kingdom Swim.  Seven swimmers are signed on to swim the length of the lake in September.