
Coach Susan Simmons is an award winning ultra-marathon swimmer and NCCP certified coach. She is also a person with a disability (PWD). It is through Susan’s personal experience that she has come to understand that the world often sees PWDs as incapable of achieving the same as everyone else. She has made it her personal mission to blow this myth out of the water.
Susan started myth busting by using her own stories as a way to show others that people with Multiple Sclerosis are able to exercise – something her doctor told her she should not do. Her achievements include swims from 10 to 70 kilometres in waters ranging from 9 to 18 celsius. She is the first person to swim from Ocean Falls to Waglisla (Bella Bella) in the traditional territory of the Heiltsuk First Nation in Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest. She is also the first and only person to swim Haro Strait and is one of five people to swim across Juan de Fuca strait from Port Angeles USA to Victoria Canada with the fastest known crossing. You can learn more about Susan on her personal website.
Susan began coaching Victoria’s Special Olympic Swim Club in 2015 and in 2018 formed the Spirit Orcas with 6 members of that club. As their first myth-buster, the Spirit Orcas became the first group of PWDs to swim a 35 kilometre relay. They have since swam several other relays and individual swims.