Lori Scott-Pinter is one of the greatest swimmers the Windsor-Essex area has ever produced. One of Canada’s top aquatic athletes in the late 1970s and early ’80s, she qualified for the 1980 Olympic Games.

Born and raised in Windsor, Scott-Pinter attended Vincent Massey Secondary School, where she was a perennial WSSA champion. With the Mustangs, Scott-Pinter established seven swimming records at the WSSA level and medalled in multiple OFSSA events. Outside of school, she competed for the Windsor Aquatic Club, with which she achieved further success at provincial and national club-level meets.

After high school, Scott-Pinter continued her swimming career with the University of Windsor. From 1978 to ’82, Scott-Pinter starred for the Lancers, specializing in the 50-metre and 100-metre freestyle events. Throughout her four-year career, Scott-Pinter won several gold and silver medals in both Ontario Women’s Interuniversity Athletic Union and Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU) competition. Outside of her specialty events, Scott-Pinter also swam to first-place finishes in the 200-metre freestyle and 4×100-metre relay. Along the way, she established several collegiate records that stood for many years and earned the CIAU’s Nageuse Par Excellence award in 1979-80.

Scott-Pinter was twice awarded the Banner Shield as the University of Windsor’s Top Female Athlete. Each time, incidentally, she shared that honour with a fellow member of the Windsor/Essex County Sports Hall of Fame: Linda Staudt in 1979-80 and Andrea Page in ’81-82.

In 1979, Scott-Pinter posted several top-eight finishes at the Canadian National Championships and won a bronze medal for Canada in the 4×50-metre relay at the University Games in Mexico City. The next year, she finished third in the 50-metre freestyle at the Canadian Olympic Trials. While the performance qualified her for the Canadian Olympic Team, she – like all Canadian Summer Olympians that year – did not attend the Moscow Games on account of the boycott led by the United States.

Still, Scott-Pinter is an Olympian all the same, and one of the all-time great swimmers to rise from the ranks of the Windsor-Essex County sports community.