Sport: Water Baby

Shortly after 11 o’clock one night last week, two women and a 16-year-old girl slipped from a Youngstown, N.Y. dock into the black waters of Lake Ontario. Their mission: to swim the 32 miles across the chill, changeable lake, a feat no man or woman had ever done.

Most interest centered on San Diego’s Florence Chadwick, 35, an old pro at distance swimming. The big Canadian National Exhibition had advanced her $2,-500 for expenses and contracted to pay her $7,500 more if she reached its Toronto exposition grounds. At the last minute, two Canadians decided to join her. One was Mrs. Winnie Roach Leuszler, 28, the only Canadian woman to conquer the English Channel. The other: blonde, freckle-faced Marilyn Bell, 16, a 119-lb. Toronto high-school girl whose only claim to swimming fame was that she had been the first woman to finish in a marathon swim in Atlantic City in July. Neither Winnie nor Marilyn stood to get $10,000—or even $1— from the C.N.E.

An hour after the start, Winnie turned back, having lost her escort boat in the darkness. Through the long night, Florence and little Marilyn churned along, against choppy waves. The youngster was frightened. Once an eel fastened onto her leg, but she kicked it off. By morning, Marilyn was weary, and badly in need of a mental lift. Then she heard that the great Florence Chadwick had given up, sickened by oil slicks and rough water. Marilyn plowed on. Winds blew her off course, but she fought back.

Radio stations began broadcasting bulletins on Marilyn’s progress; newspapers published extras. The C.N.E. management, in some embarrassment, hastily announced that it would pay a full $10,000 to Marilyn if she finished. Other gifts poured in.

Out on the lake, the 5 ft. 2 in. swimmer fought against 6-ft. waves, with the distant Toronto skyline now tantalizingly in sight. Her coach scribbled words of encouragement on a blackboard. “You quit and fail all kids,” he wrote once.

By 5 p.m. Marilyn was barely moving. Once she stopped, dipped under water three times, but kept going. By 8 p.m. the broad waterfront ahead of Marilyn was jammed with some 250,000 cheering people. To roars that she could not hear and salvos of rockets that she could not see, Marilyn touched the sea wall after nearly 21 hours in the water.

She was richer by some $50,000 in cash and gifts such as a fur coat, furniture, vacation trips and a powder blue convertible. And she will probably escape taxes because she swam for “the honor of Canada.”