Career
From New Toronto, Lumsdon was coached by Gus Ryder at the Lakeshore Swimming Club. He turned professional when he was 16 and would later say that the only regret in his career was giving up his amateur status before the 1948 Summer Olympics. On the strength of that victory, he was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada"s top athlete of 1949.
Lumsdon was the only one of 29 starters to complete the course—no other swimmer even made it to the half-way point.
Lumsdon was accompanied for part of the race by his fiancee, and by fellow Lakeshore swimmer Marilyn Bell, riding in a boat. On August 17 of that same year, he became the second swimmer to cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca in British Columbia.
He retired in 1965 with career earnings of $152,000. In March 1988, a park in Toronto was named Cliff Lumsdon Park in his honour.
Lumsdon died in 1991 at age 60.
Cliff Lumsdon was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2009. Throughout his career, Lumsdon"s name was frequently misspelled as Lumsden.
