Some athletes attending the Commonwealth Lifesavings Championships were given a cold welcome to the City of Windsor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt’s freezing, yes,\u201d said Marie Bennett from Kingston, Jamaica. She is one of about 175 athletes from eleven countries at the event being hosted at the Aquatic Centre<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe downtown core is really well set up for this, on top of this being a really huge and great facility to host an elite event like this,\u201d said Aidan Miess, project manager of Lifesaving Sport at Lifesaving Society Ontario<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The event is a sport learned for humanitarian purposes first<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll these athletes are lifeguards first. They’re trained for that purpose,\u201d said Miess<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They are back in the pool competing for the first time since the pandemic<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI’m actually from one of the most locked down cities in the world so it was quite hard,\u201d said Jemma Holt of Australia. \u201cWe didn’t have access to any pools or anything like that so as soon as opportunity arose to get back in the water we just jumped on that straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lifeguard skill development took a hit during the pandemic around the world. When the pools opened, up Holt dove in head first to get back into form<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust really been focusing on picking up or pretending to pick up a person and tow them back to safety,\u201d said Holt<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Holt said a rescue could involve that particular skill, \u201cYou’re practicing all of your skills and then by the time it comes to having to actually save someone you’ll be ready for it no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bennett was never a lifeguard or swimmer but a summer job a few years back changed her life. She taught swimming which led to coaching which led to teaching lifeguards<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen they needed a team and we only had three girls and the coach has to volunteer to be number four,\u201d said Bennett<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being on the Jamaican Lifesaving sport team has benefitted the country and Bennett\u2019s family. She introduced lifeguarding to her son and daughter, \u201cThey need to know what to do in case mommy is not well so all three of us knows what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her daughter Khavezra Harrison is happy her mom took initiative<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were just doing the lifeguarding to help us in the family in case of anything. Yes I fell in love with lifeguarding for the rest of my life,\u201d said Harrison<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jamaican team is a big advocate of people getting their first aid training<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI know how to help a baby,\u201d said Lauren Hall. \u201cI know how to stop a bleeding. If my grandma slips and falls, I know how to help her. Stuff like that. It’s not just in water. It\u2019s good to know.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some athletes attending the Commonwealth Lifesavings Championships were given a cold welcome to the City of Windsor. \u201cIt’s freezing, yes,\u201d said Marie Bennett from Kingston, Jamaica. She is one of about 175 athletes from eleven countries at the event being hosted at the Aquatic Centre \u201cThe downtown core is really well set up for this, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":21780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"topbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"enable_post_split":"0","post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n