Editor’s note: We’re delighted that Bonnie Bing plans to write a regular column for The Active Age. Please join us in welcoming her.
When you hear a speaker who inspires and/or amazes you, things he or she said come to mind long after you heard them. Here’s a great example.
Last month, Sarah Thomas was the guest speaker at the 2026 Juliette’s Pearls Leadership Society Luncheon that benefits the Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland.
Sarah is a marathon swimmer. We’re not talking 100 laps in a pool here. She is a world-record holder as the first person to complete four consecutive crossings of the English Channel. And she didn’t wear a wet suit!
Thomas learned to swim as a child, swam in high school and then in college at the University of Connecticut.
“After college, I retired from swimming and thought it was time to get to work,” she said.
But after joining a Masters Swimming club, she experienced open water swimming. Her team did a 10k swim across a lake. It didn’t take her long to realize she loved it and that she was good at it.
“I was 25 years old, and after I did that, I thought I could take on the world,” she said.
She continually set goals of swims that were longer distances and more difficult. She swam around the island of Manhattan and across Lake Powell — the second biggest reservoir in the United States — which took two days and two nights.
In 2017, she swam for 67 hours across Lake Champlain, which stretches from upstate New York into Canada. That’s over 100 miles in very cold water. She set her next goal of swimming the English Channel four consecutive times, something no one else had done.
Three months later, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer.
After surgery, chemo and radiation, many people would have given up on goals and maybe quit swimming. Not Sarah. “I still had more I wanted to do and accomplish. I told myself I have to try,” she said. “There was a lot to rebuild and repair, and it was a test mentally. I spent the summer working hard and asking myself am I ready for this?”
She believes in goals, grit and grace. “Grace offers courage and gives you hope,” she said.
In September 2019, she was ready. The boat that accompanied Sarah was full of supporters: The boat captain, two assistants, two observers who made sure all rules were followed, her husband Ryan, some friends and her mom.
Sarah explained the weather and the tide had to be just right for the swim, so she and her team of supporters sat in Dover waiting for the right conditions. Finally, on a chilly September night, it was time to hit the water.
After 54 hours and 10 minutes, she had achieved what no one else had. “I have to say the last six miles was truly awful. That last push, I just wanted it to be over,” she said.
She has swum all over the world, been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the Colorado Sportswoman Hall of Fame. She isn’t finished yet.
Sarah lives in Conifer, Colo., outside of Denver with her husband, two beagles and a mutt. She is a full-time veterinarian recruiter and a coach to aspiring open water swimmers from all over the wor-d.
When a recent day proved trying, thinking of Sarah’s bywords — goals, grit and grace — helped put things in perspective.
Reach Bonnie Bing at bingbylines@gmail.com. For more about Sarah Thomas, visit sarahthomasswims.com.
