CUMBERLAND’S Australia Day Ambassador is sure to make a splash.
Legendary Australian marathon swimmer Susie Maroney OAM will preside over this year’s celebrations and is best known for winning the Manhattan Island swim race three times as well as being the youngest and fastest female to swim the English Channel when she was just 15 years old.
She holds the world record for a double crossing of the English Channel when she was just 16, completed the Lake Zurich marathon swim in a record six hours and was the first person to swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida.
Susie also clocked up the longest recorded swim ever when she completed the 208-kilometre swim from Mexico to Cuba.
This lead to her being one of the very few athletes ever to share a meal with Fidel Castro, Cuba’s then leader.
She said that he invited her and her team and family to his palace a few times for dinner and loved talking about Australia.
“He was a big fan of our country as have so many others been that I’ve met overseas during my career,” Susie said.
“The first time I was swimming the English Channel, the English boat captain said to me, ‘Oh, you’re from Australia are you, well then I’m sure you’ll do well as you lot are so tough’.”
Susie, now 47, said this would be her 23rd year as an Australia Day Ambassador.
“It means a lot to me, we’d always be putting up the Australian Flag on our escort boats and it just gave me so much national pride,” she said.
“Then when I look out how brave our servicemen and women are in times of crisis like the bushfires, I think, yes, we definitely are a tough lot and I couldn’t be more proud of our country, our people and to be an Australian.”
Crediting her swim coach Dick Caine as the best in the business, Susie said her love of swimming allowed her to excel at such a young age but as a busy mum of three, her days of training in the water for six hours a day were over.
“I hope to open a swim school one day but for now, am very happy coaching and lifeguarding, [though] not so much the homeschooling,” she added with a laugh.
