From the lake to the sea

PICKERING -- A young Pickering swimmer will soon leave Lake Ontario and dive into the Baltic Sea for the Lifesaving World Championships in Germany.

Renata Jaciw-Zurakowsky, 20, is one of 12 athletes from across Canada competing in Berlin and Warnemunde, Germany from July 21 to Aug. 2 in the championships put on by the International Life Saving Federation and the German Life Saving Organization. Team Canada is up against 32 countries in both pool and surf events. Ms. Jaciw-Zurakowsky was chosen after gold-medal performances at the Surf Nationals in Nova Scotia last August and the Canadian Pool Championships in Toronto in March.

"I'm so excited," she said, adding this will be her first trip to Germany.

The sport of lifesaving is a combination of competitive swimming and timed, simulated rescue drills and is designed to test the athlete's endurance, speed, agility, coordination and strength in the pool and surf. The pool events are much like a swim meet, "but with more things to do," like swimming with fins, picking up a manikin and pulling it back. Surf is "more fun" and includes activities such as paddling, open water runs and beach runs.

"I love it, even the training, just because it's so diverse," she said. "You can do so much with it."

A student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Ms. Jaciw-Zurakowsky is a member of the Varsity Tigers Swim Team. She's been training about twice a day for two hours to prepare for the world championships since the actual competitions are extremely intense.

"It's more tiring than any other swim meet I've been to," she said.

Ms. Jaciw-Zurakowsky enrolled in swimming lessons at age 10 and "the swimming instructor strongly encouraged me to take it to another level."

So from the time she was 13 or 14, she's been interested and competing in pool lifesaving competitions and only began competing in surf competitions last year.

It's not only on a competitive level that Ms. Jaciw-Zurakowsky knows how to save lives: she works as a lifeguard for the Toronto Police Services on Toronto Island and has even performed some lifesaving duties on her own time. For example, on the way back from her cottage one day, Ms. Jaciw-Zurakowsky witnessed a car accident and got out of the car, finding two people had suffered major head injuries.

"I just kind of administered first aid as best as I could and called EMS," she said, adding both survived.

The experienced lifesaver is still nervous for the competition, but thinks one thing will help.

"I think my (excitement) is helping me get over my nerves," she said.

Ms. Jaciw-Zurakowsky believes Canada will probably do better in the pool events rather than surf since its outdoor season is short compared to Australia's, for example. And she knows who Canada's competition is.

"Definitely the Aussies and probably the Americans," she said. "The South Africans are good also."

But, despite a strong will to win, she's trying her best to remember she's basically doing it for fun.

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