Tough Enough: 17-Year Old Seward Girl Wins Olympic Gold Medal After Practicing In Frosty Resurrection Bay

Resurrection Bay in summer. (File Photo, Copper River Country Journal) 

 First Alaskan Swimmer To Medal In Olympics 

Unable to swim in the closed Seward pool during the pandemic, local high school junior Lydia Jacoby practiced her technique somewhere really challenging: in the frigid ocean waters of Resurrection Bay. 

Lydia and her mom also went to Anchorage, rented a place, and she swam there in an Anchorage pool. It payed off. 

On July 27th, while people from Seward and all over the world watched, Lydia Jacoby won the women's 100 meter breaststroke, taking the gold at the Olympics in Japan. She got the medal by swimming the distance in 1 minute, 4.95 seconds.