Livi Schmid, 24, has been a swimmer since childhood, something that has inspired her to swim the length of Lake Wanaka, a total of 44km, while raising funds for Wai Wānaka and Wānaka Swim Club.
Originally from Northern Virginia, Ms Schmid moved to Wānaka two years ago where she began rekindling her love for the water.
She had started swimming at a very young age and continued all the way until the end of university when life got in the way of a lifelong passion.
‘‘After uni I was quite burnt out and I didn’t touch the water at all for about a year and-a-half or two years, until I came to Wanaka and started coaching with the club team,’’ she said.
After spending some time coaching young children at the Wānaka Swim Club, Ms Schmid fell in love with swimming all over again.
‘‘Just coaching the kids and finding joy in the sport again got me back in the water,’’ she said.
From there, she was able to meet people in the community who introduced her to open water swimming and that led her to swim regularly in the lake.
Her marathon is set to happen in the last two weeks of February where she will be starting out in Makarora and swimming straight to the lakefront at Roy’s Bay.
The swim will be unassisted except for a wet suit, which means Ms Schmid will not be able to hold on to a boat or anything along the way.
This is a challenge Ms Schmid had wanted to take on with the intention of fundraising for water conservation and her swimming community.
‘‘I knew that I wanted to do some fundraising, and it was somewhat of a no-brainer to support an organisation that wants to protect and conserve our lake,’’ she said.
She is raising funds for both Wai Wānaka and the Wānaka Swim Club through her Givealittle page where people can pledge as much as they want to support Ms Schmid’s cause.
Her students at Wānaka Swim Club are doing their part with a Swimathon that Ms Schmid is running where swimmers aged 8-18 will get pledged for however long they can swim in the lake.
To further her fundraising she is also doing a raffle event at Kai this Saturday as well as a music gig at Rhyme and Reason on February 8.
Tickets are on sale online and all proceeds will be going towards the fundraising.
- Wanaka Sun
