News & Media

Introducing Dr. Marcella “Marcy” MacDonald, a podiatrist who has been a swim coach for Special Olympics Glastonbury for the past two years! 

Marcy has always been passionate about swimming, first joining a swim team in Manchester at age seven. As a teenager, everyone who swam on the team taught lessons. She had a really good coach, and a coaching position fell into her lap when she was studying in New York City in 1986. She ended up coaching the Laurel East Hartford YMCA swim team for many years. Although Marcy always wanted to be a part of Special Olympics, she never had the time since her coaching took 11 months out of the year.  After COVID hit, Marcy heard from one of her patients that there was a Special Olympics Connecticut swim team in Glastonbury. Since two of her patients are on the team, she decided to follow her dream of coaching for Special Olympics!

“I have never seen a bunch of swimmers want to be in the water so much. Everybody is so happy to be there and I don’t have to work at getting anybody in the water” said Marcy. While it is a different challenge for her as a coach since there are limitations for many of the athletes, she loves to let them do their thing and work off of that. She finds it rewarding to see her athletes smile and be so happy about completing a 50-meter swim. 

This year was Marcy’s debut at the Summer Games since she traveled in 2024. She spent the Games taking it all in and getting to know her swimmers personally. They all had a blast hanging out with their friends and competing and Marcy loved to see it. “Seeing them put 110% into their swimming all the time is always nice,” said Marcy. 

Aside from being a swim coach, Marcy has attempted to swim the English Channel frequently, crossing it 18 times! The English Channel is 18.2 nautical miles long and only 1,500 men and women have successfully crossed it. The cold waters and changing tides approaching the French shore make it a very difficult swim. While this year didn’t go the way Marcy had hoped, she was still glad that she made yet another attempt. “The Channel is always going to be there whether I want to be there or not,” stated Marcy. Marcy was the first American woman to swim a double crossing (about 42 miles total) across the English Channel in 2001. As of 2022, she is the only person in the world to swim from England to Belgium (a total of 54 miles), which took 38 hours and 20 minutes to complete without sleep. Marcy has swam around the Island of Manhattan (a total of 28.5 miles) five times since 1993 as well as many other channels around the world. For all of her accomplishments, Marcy has been inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame and named the Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year by the World Open Water Swimming Association! She feels extremely blessed for all the friends she made around the world from traveling over the years!  

We’re so glad Marcy is a part of our team and are excited to see what she will contribute to Special Olympics going forward! Thank you, Marcy, for your time!