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International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame chairman Ned Denison interviewed Hall of Fame Honor Swimmer Christine Cossette, a retired teacher from her home province of Quebec, Canada on today’s edition of WOWSA Live.
The 59-year-old former professional marathon swimmer, whose story is told in L’aventure de l’eau libre by François-Bernard Tremblay, is the daughter of fellow International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honor Swimmer Robert Cossette who was inducted in 2004. She talked about a wide variety of topics:
* remembering her early years in Québec where she met many famous professional swimmers, serving as a big motivation for her
* starting her first crossing of lac St-Jean in 1978
* competing on the World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation circuit at the age of 18 when she competed in the Traversée internationale du lac Memphrémagog, Traversée International du Lac St-Jean, a from New Brunswick to Quebec (Les 14 Miles de Paspebiac), several races in Egypt, and the Atlantic City Around the Island Swim
* coming up with the original idea of an unprecedented two-way crossing of lac St-Jean at night, and having her father organize everything for her – and knowing that she could have kept on going at the end of the 64 km swim
* swimming through the hurt of her 18 hour 27 minute two-way crossing in 1984, but still negative splitting her swim
* remembering her friend Joke van Staveren on the professional marathon swimming circuit
* competing in the 1985 two-way Traversée with Claudio Plit, Paul Asmuth, Nasser Elshazly, and Monique Wildschut
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