Who can swim their age?

Another way to "swim your age": age x 100 free (on some interval) Who is the oldest person to do it? This Sunday 10/26/2014, to celebrate his 80th birthday, Bill Lauer will try it. 80 x 100. I don't know the interval, or if he'll take any rests. UTK student aquatic center. Bill is a tough guy. He won World Championships this summer in M 80-84 100 fly, 200 fly, 400 free, and 400 IM. If anyone can do it, Bill can.

Bill is a tough guy. Here's the workout Bill Lauer swam today, on his 80th birthday. Warmup: 400 choice Main sets: 80 x 100 as 10 sets of 8 x 100, with 1 min rest between sets. 1. 8 x 100 free on 2:00 2. 8 x 100 kick w/ fins on 2:00 3. 8 x 100 pull on 2:00 4. 8 x 100 IM on 2:15 5. 100 fly, 100 free, 100 back, 100 free, 100 ***, 100 free, 50/50 fly/back, 50/50 ***/free. Strokes on 2:10, free on 1:50 6. 50/50 fly/free x 2 on 2:00 50/50 back/free x 2 on 2:00 50/50 ***/free x 2 on 2:00 100 IM on 2:00 100 free on 2:00 7. 25 fly, 75 free on 2:00 2nd length fly on 2:00 3rd length fly on 2:00 4th length fly on 2:00 same for back (4x100 on 2:00) 8. same for *** (4x100 on 2:00) 4 x 100 IM on 2:15 9. 8 x 100 pull on 2:00 10. 4 x 100 descend on 2:00 4 x 100 swimdown on 2:00 80 years old. The guy did the whole thing, as written. Did all the strokes, made all the intervals. The rest of us stopped after #79, and let Bill do the 80th one by himself, while we all cheered. He swam fly on the last length of the 80th 100, because why not? It was awesome to watch.

Wow. Very impressive. Go Bill!

The Montgomery Ancient Mariners had three swimmers accomplish this feat for SCY at a local meet last month (swim faster than their age for a 100 yard free): Clay Britt (age 53) Keith Wilson (age 57) Dave Harmon (age 65)

The Montgomery Ancient Mariners had three swimmers accomplish this feat for SCY at a local meet last month (swim faster than their age for a 100 yard free): Clay Britt (age 53) Keith Wilson (age 57) Dave Harmon (age 65) That's impressive. I hope to do it someday!

USMS Meet Results Database Rankings If I did this correctly, here is a list of 99 men ages 60 and above who have swum their age or better in 2013 - 2014 SCY season. If you do the same thing with LCM times, the number is quite a bit less. I started going through the times to see who beat their age by the widest margin, and if my math is correct, the honor goes to: David Radcliff, 80, who swam a 71.82 (1:11.82)--an 8 second gap; followed by... Dave Quiggan, age 70, who swam a 64.19--very close to a six second gap! Then... James Elder, 71, 65.79--just over 5 seconds Other wide multi-second gappers include: Rick Colella, 63, 59:04 Lee Childs, 66, 62.89 Jack Groselle, 60, 57.79, was the youngest person who I could find who beat his age. I couldn't find anyone under the 60-64 age group who accomplished their age or less in the 100 LCM freestyle. Dan Stephenson, 57, came closest with a 57.7. In 2013, Jack Groselle, then 59, swam a 58.51, which may be youngest to do this. I checked the great Rich Abrahams, who beat his age at 60 and 61 but didn't make it while a 55-59 year old, the closest he came being the 58.23 he swam at age 57. At this point, I would say a strong case could be made for Jack being the greatest "young old" 100 LCM free swimmer; Dave being the greatest "slightly less young old" swimmer; and David Radcliffe being the currently undisputed champion of the world!

If you do the same thing with LCM times, the number is quite a bit less. Other wide multi-second gappers include: Rick Colella, 63, 59:04 Lee Childs, 66, 62.89 Jack Groselle, 60, 57.79, was the youngest person who I could find who beat his age. Thanks Jim. You did, however, miss one in the LCM times...me. I went 1:03.01 (63.01) this summer as a 65 year old.

Thanks Jim. You did, however, miss one in the LCM times...me. I went 1:03.01 (63.01) this summer as a 65 year old. Did not in any way mean to rob you of your fantastic accomplishment, Glenn, and let me add my even greater congratulations on your 400 SCM world record. I was listing folks who beat their age by multiple seconds (i.e., close to 3 or more) and I should have noted you in this rare fraternity. The younger you are, the harder it is--obviously, few toddlers at age 3, for example, can swim a sub-3 second 100 LCM freestyle! The reason I included Jack was that, as far as I can tell, he is the youngest person to have ever accomplished this, at least in the US, and the only one I could find who has yet done it in the 55-59 age group. As a fellow mathematically fascinated older swimmer, what do you think should be the criteria for official admittance into the "beating your age" club? Should the swimmer have to go with actual age or FINA age, for instance? I don't know if you saw my earlier post, but I too would qualify for admission to the rarefied fraternity if FINA age counts, but if it's actual age (in my case, FINA 62 minus a couple months till my birthday), I would have missed it by a few hundredths. Am I deluding myself, in other words, when I say to you, brother Glenn, I salute you, fellow Death-Defying Sub-Ageman?

Dave Radcliffe is a great guy and ageless though I imagine there is a picture of him somewhere that is showing it's age. On the women's side,in yards-Laura Val(who else) went 54.83 at age 55.

Jim, I suppose the criteria should be your yards age for yards and your meters age for meters. However, someone like Jim McConica who ages up in December gets an entire year in meters in the next age group three days after he actually ages up in December. So Jim will be 64 at the end of December, but come January 1 he will be 65! Say goodbye to my 400 SCM record.