Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
In 1980, Steve Wozniak developed chest pains while training for his second attempt of the English Channel at the age of 64. He went for a medical check-up.
As a result, the former truck driver had heart surgery that required five artery bypasses and an implant of an artificial valve in his heart.
Despite that surgery, he never gave up his dream of crossing the English Channel and continued to train. He worked up to a 9-mile training swim in 1986 in Buffalo Harbor, but at the age of 71, his heart problems resurfaced and he passed away seven years after his heart surgery and seven more years of swimming.
Wozniak was an American open water swimmer who was inducted as an Honour Swimmer in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 1979.
He enjoyed a 50-year marathon swimming career. In 1937, he won the USA National five-mile championship. In 1957, he won the five- and ten-mile events at the Canadian National Exhibition, the 54 km (32-mile) Nile River Swim in 1956, and participated in the 88 km (55-mile) Paraná River swim in Argentina in 1961. He finished third in several 36 km (22.5-mile) Around-the-Island Marathon Swims in Atlantic City, U.S.A.
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