Lifesaving Sport

The Lifesaving Society is the Canadian governing body for competitive lifesaving-a sport recognized by the International Olympic Committee. But lifesaving is unique because it is the only sport in which skills are learned for humanitarian purposes and only then applied to competition.

Lifesaving sport is divided into six different disciplines including; pool events, ocean events, Simulated Emergency Response Competition (SERC), Stillwater boat competition, surf boat competition and the inflatable rescue boat (IRB) competition. With this type of diversity it is easy to understand why this sport has been deemed the most demanding multi-discipline sport in the world.  

As the Canadian sport governing body for lifesaving, the Society promotes competition as a training incentive. Competition provides high-profile opportunities to attract new participants to lifesaving programs, to showcase Canada's lifeguards, and to promote public awareness of our drowning and water-related injury prevention aims.

The Lifesaving Society sponsored lifesaving races as early as the 1930s, and has organized lifeguard competitions since the late 1960s. The first Canadian Lifeguard Championship was held in Winnipeg in 1977. The Society hosted the World Lifesaving Championships in Vancouver at Rescue '86.

Today, Provincial/territorial and national championships showcase the professionalism of our lifeguards and national lifesaving teams represent Canada in international competitions