Champion swimmer challenges Olympic skier to marathon Montreal dip to teach water safety
Two decorated athletes took the first ever International Drowning Awareness Day to the next level by crossing Montreal’s Olympic Basin Sunday to promote water safety awareness.
“I’m not a big swimmer, I’m a skier,” said three-time Olympic skier Alex Bilodeau. “It was a challenge for me to swim three kilometres today ... just to raise awareness.”
Bilodeau was invited to do it by his friend, and international swimming champion, Xavier Desharnais, for whom the dip was, well, a swim in the park.
An estimated 80 people drown every year in Quebec. Desharnais says the point of the marathon, was to share some common mistakes people make around water.
A big one, he says, is failing to realize that swimming pools and open water are drastically different.
“In a pool, you have lanes, clear water, walls, lifeguards,” explained Desharnais. “In open water, you can’t see the bottom, [and there’s] nothing to grab on to.”
Even for the Traversee Lac St- Jean champion, he says that’s why he rarely swims alone.
Raynald Hawkins, the director of the Lifesaving Society, echoed that tip.
“Fifty per cent of victims are alone,” he said. “No one can help you, no one can call 911, and for sure, because you’re alone, we don’t have an explanation [for what happened].”
What’s more, Hawkins says 90 per cent of boating related drownings happen because the victims weren’t wearing life jackets.
With those two changes alone -- swimming with a friend and always wearing a life jacket -- he says than 70% of drownings could be prevented.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit the federal carbon price on natural gas, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
'We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.' That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko won't play in Game 2
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Pedestrian, baby injured after stroller struck and dragged by vehicle in Squamish, B.C.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.