All Canadians know Marilyn Bell and her 1954 swim across Lake Ontario. Most of us can recall a few other crossers – probably Vicki Keith and Cindy Nicholas; perhaps Colleen Shields or Paula Stephanson. But few of us know that in fact, including Bell’s swim, 74 swimmers (mostly amateur and mostly Canadian) have made 66 crossings of Lake Ontario, 19 of Erie, five of Huron and Georgian Bay, two of Michigan, and two of Superior. What drives them to undertake such an ordeal? Well, to fill us in Laura E. Young interviewed over 40 Canadian swimmers, both the icons whose names we know, and the many not-so-regular Canadians who also answered the challenge to swim across a Great Lake.