On July 7-8, 2024, Jessi Harewicz, at 41 y of age,  swam Lake Ontario from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Marilyn Bell Park in a time of 22:07:52. This was the earliest in the year SSO has ever had a successful lake Ontario swim. In fact, Jessi, a Pacific ocean swimmer, was uncomfortable warm at water temperatures of 20-23 degrees C. Although the weather was forecast to be perfect, there were annoying 0.3-0.5m waves from the SW for about 6 hours. She was determined to finish no matter what. She would put her head down and keep swimming like a machine. This attitude has gotten her across some of the planet’s toughest swims.

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Jessi is a 41 year old accomplished marathon swimmer from Vancouver. She has swum the English Channel, Catalina, and 20 Bridges Manhattan swim, becoming the third Canadian to complete the Triple Crown of Open Water swimming. She is the first Canadian to swim the North Channel from Ireland to Scotland. In B.C., Jessi completed the longest documented saltwater swim in the Salish Sea, 58.6 km from Nanaimo to Kitsilano Beach. She is also the first to swim circumnavigations around all the Átl'ka7tsem / Howe Sound islands. She works as a lifeguard for the City of Vancouver and YWCA, and volunteers as the safety coordinator for the Vancouver Open Water Swim Association. On this swim, she was raising money for the Lifesaving Society of B.C. 

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