Diving In: Taking the Plunge at Age 65

By Carol Brzozowski | August 2024

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During a recent consultation, my primary care physician, cognizant I was a swimmer and a member of U.S. Masters Swimming (headquartered in Sarasota), asked me if I’d ever competed in swimming. I had not, but I told him, “Maybe I will. Maybe I won’t.” But his recommendation got me thinking. 

I had recently moved from Coral Springs to Venice, having gotten to know the area after writing so many intriguing stories about local people and places for Sarasota Scene. As a freelance journalist, I could work from anywhere, and was drawn to the many benefits this area has to offer, despite never spending an extended amount of time here. There was so much to explore, and I was anxious to make new acquaintances. 

Exercise, whether outdoors or indoors, is a great way to meet people. I joined a beach yoga group as well as the YMCA in Venice for swimming, which would be a good way to expand my circle. The pool is a great place not only for its physical benefits, but also for its social benefits. 

Before I moved to Venice, at the Coral Springs Aquatic Center I would get to meet Olympians in training, such as Bruno Fratus of Brazil and Dara Torres, who at age 41 became the oldest swimmer to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team. Dara wrote the book Age is Just a Number. I am also a big fan of Diana Nyad, who at age 64, successfully swam from Cuba to Key West on her fifth attempt.

My swimming journey began at Roosevelt High School in Wyandotte, Michigan where I earned a letter sweater through my involvement on a synchronized swim team. Synchronized swimming involves a lot of lung capacity, but only required a few sidestrokes or breaststrokes to move into the next maneuver. I never quite learned how to swim from one end of the pool to the other. 

Fast forward to today. Now that I am an empty nester, I decided to start swimming again, a journey I chronicled in my book Empty Nest, Single Parent: Moving the Needle Toward a Repurposed Life. I decided part of my new purpose would be doing that which I had put on hold from high school until my 50s. 

Don’t let its name intimidate you. U.S. Masters Swimming is for anyone over the age of 18 regardless of ability. Participants swim for fitness and, if desired, to compete in their age groups. I joke with people that it just means I’m over 18 and that I haven’t mastered anything! That’s why it’s called swim practice!

Entering the water on the first day, the coach said, “Show me what you’ve got!”

I swam three strokes and clung to the side of the pool and told him, “That’s all I’ve got.”

It wasn’t long before I could swim freestyle, breaststroke, and backstroke from one end of the 50-meter pool to the other. Soon, I’d be clocking in more than a mile with each swim practice.

Most Masters Swimming programs have coaches on deck who provide workouts, instruction, and feedback. In Venice, my coach, David Back, a former competitive swimmer who teaches and coaches all age groups from children to seniors, provides workouts with aerobic and anaerobic benefits. He takes each swimmer from their starting point and encourages them to be a little bit faster and more efficient than they were before. 

In joining the Masters Swimming group, I started meeting people who would offer me recommendations for doctors, a dentist, a veterinarian, grocery stores and the like. Some of the other swimmers started talking about an upcoming swim meet in Sarasota and urged me to consider competing.

As if moving to a new city wasn’t challenging enough, I decided to embrace another challenge: compete in swimming. It would be the first time in my life I would compete in a sport in which I had engaged on and off since high school. 

In June one weekend, I packed up my swimsuit, cap, goggles, ear plugs, water bottle and a protein bar and headed from Venice to the Selby Aquatic Center to participate in the 2024 Bumpy Jones Classic Long Course Meet, hosted by U.S. Masters Swimming and the Sarasota Sharks Masters. Bumpy Jones started swim racing at age five and for more than 70 years set world records as a collegiate swimmer and a Masters swimmer. He started a private dermatology practice in Sarasota in 1965 and passed away in 2021 at the age of 87. 

Deciding to dip my toe in the water for an actual competition triggered a wave of nervous anticipation.

“Just have fun,” my teammates advised.

Although the competitions I entered that weekend were on a Sunday, I showed up on Saturday so I could observe how the swimmers lined up at the diving blocks, how they positioned their bodies, and at what point they were allowed to take off. 

I observed how they used an adjacent swimming pool to warm up before their races. Since I have idiopathic peripheral neuropathy, I would not be able to use a diving block, which meant starting from the wall would shave a few seconds off in competition. 

Coach Dave told me I’d see people engaging in all sorts of preparation, including squeezing energy gels into their mouth. Most would wear technical swimsuits for competition that cost a couple hundred dollars. I only had a basic swimsuit.

“Don’t worry about that,” Coach Dave said. “Just have fun.” 

Still, I took the preparations quite seriously—eating high carb meals, refraining from my usual glass of wine at dinner the night before the race, getting a good night’s sleep.

I left that morning earlier than I needed to, worried about potential traffic slowdowns that would delay my arrival. My oldest son Adam, who lives in Zephyrhills, drove over to watch me compete. It made me so happy to have him there in the stands rooting me on, as well as my partner Rick.

At the facility, I ran into my friend Barb Protzman, with whom I’d sometimes swim in Coral Springs. An experienced competitive swimmer, she offered me guidance on what I needed to do. On the deck, I met incredible role models, including a 94-year-old woman who has been competing for years. 

On Sunday, when my time came to compete in the 50-meter breaststroke for ages 65 to 69, I joined the other swimmers at one end of the pool. I looked up to see my name on the scoreboard.  That made it real.  

I heard the starter sound and pushed off the wall.

Incredibly, I was not nervous anymore. I didn’t even hear if anyone was cheering. I just thought about my dog and enjoyed the swim. I finished in 1.34.02 (that’s one minute, 34 plus .02 seconds). I had gone about five seconds faster than my seed time. In the freestyle race, I added nearly three seconds to my seed time, hitting the wall at 1:07.96.

Part of the water that was on my face when I exited the pool were tears of happiness.  For the 2024 season to date, I had ranked 17 out of 19 swimmers for freestyle and 11 out of 11 for breaststroke in women in the 65 to 69 age group. But I ranked! I competed!

While on the pool deck, I joked with the referees and coaches that in this swim meet where mostly older people were competing, I didn’t hear their adult children yelling at them about unfair calls. They laughed. They hadn’t thought of that. 

After the meet, I called my 88-year-old mother in Michigan. “Mom!” I exclaimed. “I did it!”

I emailed my primary care physician: “I did it!” 

When I saw my coach the following Monday, I exclaimed, “Coach, I did it!” 

Rick and I celebrated my accomplishment at Fins at Sharky’s in Venice where I ate oysters and ordered a glass of champagne as we watched the sunset on one of the best days of my life.

And as I thought about the sun rising again tomorrow, I was excited to contemplate more new possibilities in my life.