Keith didn?t start as a natural flyer but when she was told it couldn?t be done in open water swimming, she decided to try it. Her trick is an extension at the top of the stroke. She calls it survival fly, a cross between breaststroke which originally spawned the stroke, and racing fly. She mostly uses her upper body but there is still a two-beat kick.

Keith is renowned for her butterfly swimming. In addition to crossing all five Great Lakes, her legendary marathon-swimming career includes the first-ever crossing of the English Channel swimming butterfly. For more details on Keith?s swims link to soloswims.com/keith.htm and www.penguinscanfly.ca

She is officially retired and happily coaching athletes with a disability in Kingston. She is coaching three athletes to national championships for athletes with a disability and is working with able-bodied marathon swimmers.

Occasionally Keith resurfaces. In 2005 she swam a record-breaking 77 kilometres of fly in 64 hours. She inadvertently also set a record for the longest time swimming in open water. She was raising money to help the Kingston YMCA build a six-lane 25-metre pool. (Construction was expected to begin in July 2007)

?I needed money for a pool. How else do you raise money but by swimming a lake??

For that particular swim, Keith trained only butterfly for a year. She was worried that, after a nutrition break during the official swim she would start swimming again accidentally doing a stroke other than fly. Even one arm pull of freestyle or breaststroke would kill her record attempt.