In the summer of 2021, Jillian Best, a liver transplant recipient, swam Lake Ontario alone.Nicole Osborne/The Globe and Mail
A small group of fewer than 70 people have swum across Lake Ontario. But before they swam, many of the challengers joined an even lesser-known clique: those who received The Call from Marilyn Bell Di Lascio.
Ms. Bell Di Lascio is the first person to ever swim across the lake, a feat she accomplished when she was 16 in 1954.
On that day, 100,000 people gathered on Toronto’s lakeshore to cheer Ms. Bell Di Lascio as she finished the crossing.
There were television and radio appearances. So many gifts poured in from across Canada – including a solid silver dinner set, a vacuum cleaner, a blue convertible car and two live chinchillas – they filled the warehouse floor that a grocery chain had lent her to store them all.
The next year, she swam across the English Channel after the Toronto Telegram newspaper offered her $15,000, approximately $170,000 in today’s dollars, to do it. She became the youngest person to complete that crossing.
In the summer of 2021, Jillian Best, then 34, swam Lake Ontario alone. It was a gruelling, mind-and-body-testing feat that she completed in 18 hours and 36 minutes. And she got a phone call from Ms. Bell Di Lascio.
“‘Once you step into the water, you belong to me,’” Canada’s most famous open water swimmer told her.
Ms. Best was a liver transplant recipient, and she swam the Great Lake to raise money for London Health Sciences Centre, a hospital in her home of London, Ont.
“I felt so motivated by her calling me and knowing she cared about me swimming across her lake,” says Ms. Best, executive director of the Move for Life Foundation, a non-profit organization.
Now 86, Ms. Bell Di Lascio lives a quiet life in New Paltz, N.Y. But for those who attempt to swim Lake Ontario, she is very much an active force, an inspiring figure and the swimmer’s biggest cheerleader.
She usually calls swimmers before their attempt to offer words of advice and encouragement, will likely call during the swim to boost their spirits by relaying messages to those aboard the boat that accompanies swimmers, and will call them once again when they have reached the shore to congratulate them and welcome them to a rarefied club.
“She is the legend of swimming and so to get a call from that person is so monumental,” says Dr. Marilyn Korzekwa, president of Solo Swims of Ontario, the organization that sanctions all individual swims across Lake Ontario.
Ms. Bell Di Lascio was not available to speak for this article, but she did explain to Ms. Korzekwa why she makes these calls.
Just before swimming across Lake Ontario, Ms. Bell competed in a 41.8-kilometre race in Atlantic City, N.J. One of the male swimmers told her she was just a kid and didn’t belong there.
Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel, approached her and told her she was going to do great.
When swimmer Vicki Keith was attempting to become the first person to complete a double crossing of Lake Ontario in 1987, Ms. Bell Di Lascio was listening to the coverage over the radio while driving and decided to call the radio station from a rest stop and send a message for Ms. Keith.
After that, she started asking Swim Masters, the people who oversee attempts to cross the lake, for the phone numbers of swimmers so she could contact them.
Colleen Shields, herself a legend among Great Lake swimmers, has overseen many swimmers’ attempts.
“When I was overseeing swims, Marilyn would ask me how everything was going. I would let her know, and she would say, ‘Please pass this on to the swimmer,’” says Ms. Shields, a travel consultant in Mississauga.
Having swum across the lake herself three times, Ms. Shields says the phone calls of encouragement and congratulations are invaluable. “It was very important to me because I’ve just idolized her since I was a little girl,” Ms. Shields says.
That example of always trying to support others and encourage them to do their best – Ms. Bell Di Lascio signs her e-mails with “Dream it! Do it! One stroke at a time!” – is one that Loren King, an associate professor of political science at Wilfrid Laurier University, is inspired to follow.
Prof. King has either overseen or been part of the support crew for 10 different attempts to cross Lake Ontario. He says Ms. Bell Di Lascio has been in contact with the crew on every one of them, often sharing messages on Facebook Messenger.
When Prof. King failed on his first attempt to swim across the English Channel, Ms. Bell Di Lascio called him to commiserate.
“I can’t really think of another swim where the first swimmer is not only still so much a part of the community but embraces swimmers new and old so readily,” he says.
“That’s certainly inspired me to try and keep that spirit alive in everything I do.”
Mr. King, Ms. Korzekwa and everyone else in the community hope Ms. Bell Di Lascio will be able to keep making her calls to swimmers this summer.
When Ms. Best finished her swim in 2021, she was in tears when Ms. Bell Di Lascio called to congratulate her.
“She said, ‘You’re in my family now,’” Ms. Best says. “That meant the world to me. I just felt like I was part of this exclusive club that Marilyn had started. And it just felt so special. I think that’s the best word. I felt so special to be recognized by Marilyn.”