Seniors, high schoolers celebrate swimming as lifelong sport at Washington State Senior Games

Tracy Larson grew up mostly overseas — in Africa, Asia and Central America. She swam for the Kenyan national team when her father’s job with the international branch of the U.S. Census Bureau sent the family to Africa.

“We were all over the world,” Larson said.

All over the world, she found pools.

Born in Washington D.C., Larson eventually swam for her boarding school in Florida. She crossed the country to swim for Oregon State University, and, now 54 years old, Larson said she’s been swimming in U.S. Masters Swimming meets fairly consistently for the past 35 years.

Sunday at the Briggs Community YMCA in Olympia, Larson swam four events — the 100-yard individual medley, 50 backstroke, 100 back and 200 back — at the Washington State Senior Games. During each of her events, she was cheered on by 12 volunteer high school swimmers from Olympia High School, where Larson is an assistant coach.

“I think it’s really special having the kids participate,” Larson said. “You can never really impress upon them what a lifelong sport this is just by telling them. Having them see it, and see — even if they don’t make the Olympic team or swim in college — they can still continue doing this through their entire life.”

Larson has, anyway. She qualified for next year’s national competition in all four of her events and posted times in each that will likely meet USMS national standards for next spring’s short course championships in California (based on last year’s qualifying times).

“This is actually the first time I’ve ever seen (Tracy) swim, and it’s inspiring because we get to see our future,” said Sydney Bonauto, a soon-to-be sophomore who swims for Olympia.

“Tracy has done a lot of great things. She swam in the past and she’s still swimming now, and she’s also coaching us. She does all of this. Now we know that swimming is something that’s going to last our whole lives.”

Canadian swimmer Elizabeth Naylor — who traveled from Kamloops, British Columbia, with two friends to compete in the games for the fourth time — can attest to that. She’s 85, and was the oldest of 58 swimmers competing on Sunday. She said she’s been swimming since before she was 5 years old.

“The water was cold because I lived in Ontario then,” said Naylor, who sported a cap designed as the Canadian flag. “It was cold Lake Ontario. It was freezing. And when we left it was still freezing when I was 20 years old.”

Temperature never deterred her — neither has age. She regularly swims for exercise and started competing for enjoyment.

“I learned to swim when I was knee-high, but in competition I was 73 the first time I won some medals,” Naylor said.

This story was originally published July 24, 2016 at 8:15 PM with the headline "Seniors, high schoolers celebrate swimming as lifelong sport at Washington State Senior Games."