Toronto ultramarathoner becomes first openly trans person to swim Great Lakes, eyes all five

In one week, Toronto local Lev Goldberg will attempt to swim across Lake Huron.

It's a 30-hour, 55-kilometre journey from Port Sanilac, Michigan to Port Franks, Ontario—a crossing that will be his second Great Lake in less than two years. In 2025, Goldberg became the first openly transgender person to swim across Lake Ontario. It took him 24 hours straight and covered 51 kilometres. Now, with an ambitious goal to swim all five Great Lakes, he's building momentum toward a feat no one has done before.

Goldberg's motivation extends beyond the athletic achievement. He's raising money in partnership with LGBT Youthline for the 55km for Trans Visibility Partnership, supporting vulnerable queer and trans young people. He's also on the cusp of receiving his Canadian citizenship this year—a milestone that makes swimming from the United States to Canada feel particularly significant.

"I've been here 13 years now. That's really exciting," he said.

The training regimen is unconventional. Despite months of preparation, Goldberg can't physically swim the full distance beforehand. "It's actually not possible for me to come even close to the distance," he explained. "I will never do a single swim that's anywhere near 55 kilometres. Looking back on last year, I never actually swam the full distance in a week. I gradually build volume."

He trains in a pool most of the time but conditions himself in Lake Ontario, acclimating to cold water that sometimes dips below five degrees Celsius. "In addition to building up volume and lots of swimming, I also do a lot of cold water training," he said. "I get into water that's sometimes under five degrees for up to 10 or 15 minutes to acclimatize myself to cold so that during my swim, if there are portions of it that might be 16 or even 14 degrees, it'll feel very manageable to me."

Continuous eating is what sustains him through 30 hours of open water. Goldberg has trained his body to digest food while swimming. With any swim over an hour and a half, he eats every 30 minutes—mostly carb-heavy drinks, sport gels, and vegan marshmallows.

As a transgender athlete, Goldberg is keenly aware of the political climate surrounding trans participation in sport, particularly in the United States. "The U.S. government's attack on transgender people, especially trans women and girls in sports, is directly affecting him and it's so extremely concerning and disheartening to see," he said. But he also finds it encouraging to compete in a sport that doesn't emphasize gender the way many others do.

"Gender doesn't function the same way that people assume it does in a lot of other sports," he said.

Goldberg has already started planning which body of water he'll swim after completing all five Great Lakes. "I'm thinking about the Catalina Channel in California one day and I would totally like to swim the English Channel," he said. For now, Lake Huron is the focus—a 30-hour test of endurance, cold, and determination that will bring him closer to a goal only he has set for himself and his community.