Joanie Guillemette-Simard, a 24-year-old marathon swimmer from Canada, had to face something that few other marathon swimmers experience before their swim.

She was injured, including broken fingers, lacerations and blood-swelled eyes, when she hit a moose while driving in Quebec and was fortunately saved from further injury.

Moose can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds (453 kg) when fully grown and stand about over 2 meters tall. Moose do extensive damage to vehicles and everyone inside when there is a collision – which makes Joanie one very lucky swimmer. When a car hits a moose, it usually strikes the animal’s legs and sending the entire moose into the windshield of a car.

“I was lucky. [The injury] looks a bit worse than it is,” explained Joanie about her eyes before the 34K Traversée Internationale du Lac Memphrémagog yesterday. “The doctor approved me to swim with tape on my broken fingers, but my car was badly damaged.”

When she finished the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix race in 8 hours and 15 minutes to capture fifth among the women and tenth overall, the knowledgeable Canadian crowds erupted with boisterous cheers in a heartfelt show of respect and admiration.

Photo of Joanie before her accident by Steeve Tremblay.

Copyright © 2010 by Steven Munatones