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TECHNIQUE 


OLDER SWIMMERS


As 61-year-old swimmer Diana Nyad prepares to be the fi rst person to swim unassisted between Florida and Cuba this month – a whopping 103 miles – the question has been raised again and again by the world’s media: “Isn’t she just too old?” Nyad, who unsuccessfully at empted the swim once before in her late 20s, says she is at empting the crossing for everyone her age, as an inspiration for older people. “I feel the collective pressure of people my age. We can achieve our dreams, all of us can,” she told a US news agency about the challenge she calls her Xtreme Dream. “It’s not too late to do everything you want in life.” And Nyad is not alone in this golden years return to swimming. Many of us revisit (or take up) swimming as older people, lured by


“OPEN WATER RACING IS THE PERFECT


TRIATHLON; YOU DON’T HAVE TO BIKE OR RUN” Dan explains his journey to being an older open water swimmer


“In 1994, I hung up my goggles for good, or so I thought. Aſt er swimming competitively as a senior from 1987 to 1994, I was content with my progress in the sport. It had taken me from an East End of London comprehensive


to Millfi eld School in Somerset for my A-levels and to university in the US, with two Olympic trials and travels to swim meets around the world along the way, but the intense training regime had leſt me tired of swimming. “I had loved the sport but now I needed a break. I did try and return to swimming, about 18 months aſt er I had leſt , making a comeback with my old team and racing some masters’ events. But, alas, while working full-time, I was only ever get ing slower compared to my elite peak so it was pret y soul-destroying. Not enough time had elapsed to be able to reconcile my previous career as an elite-level athlete with my new Masters level. My comeback didn’t last very long. “Then the chance to enter the London Triathlon came up in 1998 and I thought, 'Why not?' I had one of the disciplines mastered, the other two didn’t sound so bad. But the open water part of triathlon didn’t appeal at fi rst! Despite being at the front of the pack, avoiding the washing-machine scrum, I found it all quite distressing. It took a lot of races and a lot of visits to my local lake for me to eventually fi nd peace with open water. “In 2009, aſt er 12 years of triathlon, I found that I didn’t have time for this time-consuming sport, but by then I’d discovered open water swimming. Thanks to the success of the GB team in Beijing and the fi rst Great North Swim, events in this previously fringe discipline were now widely available. “I raced everywhere, even a 5km canal swim in Belgium from Damme to Bruges. It was 15 years on from my swimming career and I had found a new way to be a swimmer that was enjoyable in a diff erent way. It also led me back to the pool environment, which I had thought was closed to me. I raced the Euro and World Masters (pool and open water) in 2009/10. “It has taken 20 years but I’ve learned to love swimming again, to discover a new swim discipline and overcome the injuries I felt were going to stop my swimming a few years back. “I still enjoy pool racing, open water racing and the occasional triathlon when I can. Perhaps more than this though, I enjoy the training, the social aspect and the chance to turn off the external distractions (email, mobile phones). Now I’m older, keeping fi t and healthy, injury-free and enthused are my main goals.”


40


Diana Nyad as she faces the toughest swim of her life... in the month she will turn 62


TOO OLD TO SWIM


NEVER


Did you know older people can have an advantage over youngsters when it


comes to open water swimming? Here coach Dan Bullock offers advice for the growing number of oldies taking up the sport


Photo © Diana Nyad/ Chicago Tribune


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