Cindy Nicholas

SPORTS

Scarborough native Cindy Nicholas started swimming competitively when she was just five and a half years old. She wouldn’t have known it at the time, but 10 years later, at the age of 16, Nicholas would brave the cold waters and successfully swim across Lake Ontario, setting a brand new record of 15 hours and 10 minutes. Smashing long-distance swimmer Marilyn Bell’s record by more than five hours and 52 minutes. Taught to swim by her father, Nicholas won her first medal at the age of eight and also held 16 Canadian and Ontario amateur records for her age group. In 1975, at the age of 18, Nicholas crossed the English Channel for the first time. She set a record of nine hours, 46 minutes for the crossing from France to England. The next year, she swam the Channel again, this time from England to France in 10 hours, 24 minutes. The World Federation of swimming named her the Women’s International Swimming Champion for 1976. Between 1975 and 1982, Nicholas completed a total of 19 Channel crossings, including five twoway crossings which earned her the title: “Queen of the Channel”. She is a member of the Order of Canada, has received the Toronto Award of Merit and is the first recipient of the Scarborough Award of Merit. She is a member of the Canada Sports Hall of Fame (Woman Athlete of the Year 1977) and received the Vanier Award as one of Canada’s five outstanding young Canadians. Nicholas served in Parliament for one term as MP for Scarborough Centre and is currently practicing law in Scarborough. She is married with a daughter.