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Posted on: 8/23/2009 The early bird gets the worm… We had an early start to our day today because we had a lot to do. We started with a light, early breakfast. The bell rang at 7:00am to get our morning going. The girls headed to the Mainhouse to fill their bellies with fuel to propel them in the race. Race? What race? This morning we paddled over to Chikopi for the Knoepfli Mile Open Water Swim. We had made it to our brother camp just in time for the start of the race. All of the swimmers headed to the point for the in-water start. It was an amazing sight to behold and to hear as over 150 swimmers took off after the starter’s pistol was fired. This year they had the unique experience of testing their luck against Alex Baumann. At the 1984 Olympics Alex Baumann won a gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley and set a world record time of 4:17.41, he won gold in the 200 as well. In 1984 Alex was also named Canada’s Athlete of the Year by Swimming World Magazine. He has many other accolades such as 3 gold medals at the 1986 Commonwealth Games and in March 2009 he broke another record in the 200-meter individual medley in the 45-49 age group category. Every swimmer that started the race finished with a flurry of splashes and a smile on their face. Their running shoes were all lined up ready for them to slip on and run back to Chikopi for awards. Once the ribbons had been handed out and the awards received the campers and counsellors hopped back into our orange and green canoes. Once ready we paddled our way back across the very wavy and windy Ahmic Lake to Ak-O-Mak. It took forever to battle the waves with our canoes backed to the brim but we all made it back just in time for lunch, mmm mmm. As the sun began to set on campus we listened to Alex Baumann tell us the story of his swimming career. The campers were captive as Alex retold his times of training, Olympics and the trials and tribulations of competing in sports. He told the girls the importance of well rounded training and taking good care of themselves. He answered the plethora of questions the girls shot at him and took some pictures with idolizing campers. The sky was dark and the stars were out as Alex concluded the girls went down to their cabins to get ready for bed. Everyone was very sleepy, but in the immortal words of Buck Dawson, “If you’re going to hoot with the owls you’ve gotta fly with the eagles”. Stay tuned for the Knoepfli Mile Swim results. Happy Camping! Hayley & Rufio