A Swimming Hero Relearns How to Swim – Wall Street Journal

New Paltz, N.Y.

In 1954, the renowned American distance swimmer Florence Chadwick received a tantalizing offer: Swim across Lake Ontario—something no human had ever done—and she would receive $10,000, the equivalent of nearly $90,000 today.

The offer, from an annual event called the Canadian National Exhibition, irritated some Canadians who thought that surely one of their own compatriots could accomplish that feat. Years…