Teen to attempt English Channel crossing
Trinity Arsenault will be slathering herself in Lanolin oil and slipping into the English Channel in her attempt to be the youngest Canadian to swim from England to France.
“It’s actually a record that hasn’t been attempted in 40 years,” said the 16-year-old.
The St. Catharines swimmer isn’t a stranger to distance, but this is her first swim abroad and in saltwater. She has already conquered two Great Lakes, Erie and Ontario, and hopes to swim the 32-kilometre-wide channel in 10 hours.
“If you’re doing something big it should always scare you a little,” she said, “and that’s when you know you should do it.”
She will be swimming freestyle from Dover, England, to Calais, France.
Trinity has been training all year for the swim, including swimming 16 km on her 16th birthday in May. To qualify for the cross, she had to complete a six-hour trial swim in water below 60˚F, or 15.5˚C.
On the day of her trial, the buoys in Port Dalhousie were reading 17˚C.
“We knew we would only have one weekend where we’d be able to do it on Lake Ontario and if for some reason we couldn’t do it, we would have to go up north to do it,” she said. “I couldn’t take a risk that I got in the water and it was anything above 60˚F, so we went to Burlington and it was 54˚F (12˚C). So I did a six-hour swim in 54-degree water, and that’s when I knew I was ready to swim the channel.”
The Arsenault family also travelled to the Florida Keys for two weeks in March to practise saltwater swimming. They spent hours each day swimming between the islands.
“I didn’t know how much I kept my mouth open when I swam until I hopped in salt water,” Trinity quipped.
The trip was also for Trinity to get a taste of jellyfish venom.
“You always hear about the jellyfish in the channel and so we went to Florida, and my mom’s like, ‘You’re getting stung by some jellyfish,’ and I’m like, ‘OK, where are they?’” said Trinity, who said she wasn’t bothered by the stings. “It’s a little pinch.” Trinity’s mom, Christine Arsenault, said the unknowns, such as jellyfish stings, are the hardest part of a foreign swim.
“I was feeling really nervous about some of the details of the swim, and we had to put it all down and say, wait a minute, swimming is what we do,” said Christine “The hard part is getting there and figuring out a different country. There are so many things we take for granted that we have here and won’t have there, and trying to anticipate what that is.”
One of the unknowns the Arsenaults encountered? The cost of coconut water. Coconut water is necessary for Trinity’s nutrition plan on her swims. The drink costs between $1.99 to $4.99 a litre in Canada and can be found nearly everywhere. In England? The cheap stuff starts at $40, said Christine.
The discovery made her start asking more questions.
“Can we really do this?” she said. “I think as a single mom just being so afraid to take the girls so far away from home, and the reality with what is the surprise?”
Trinity is raising money for Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities, which donates to children so they can engage in a sport or activity.
“This is all for Jumpstart,” said Christine. “It’s the privilege of participating in sport. It’s the privilege of being able to dream big and the gift of that and how far that goes, not just in (Trinity’s) life, but in our lives.”
Trinity’s sister, Michaela Arsenault, in June snagged the title for youngest swimmer to cross Lake Erie. She is also going on the trip and will be pacing for Trinity and feeding her on her swim.
“I’m really excited,” Michaela said. “I’m very excited because I know that Trinity is going to do it, but I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little bit nervous.”
Trinity will spend a week acclimating to the water and time zone before attempting the swim. Her official window is Sept. 15 to 22.