Think all of the big international athletic events of the summer are over? Not so. Five local athletes will soon compete in one of the biggest swimming events in the world.
Jan Kavadas, Cathy Cooley and Margaret Winnie, all of Edmonds, and Charlotte Davis of Shoreline, and Mike Nordby of Lake Forest Park are all heading south Aug. 4-17 to swim in the 11th FINA (Federation Internationale de Natation) championships at the Avery Aquatic Center.
The Center, on the Stanford University campus, is the largest swimming facility in the nation, according to FINA. Stanford is also one of the few places with two 50-meter pools.
All told, 7,200 athletes are expected from 75 countries. They will compete in water polo, speed swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and open water swimming in San Francisco Bay. There’s just one catch. You have to be over 25.
A team coached by Robin O’Leary trains at the Shoreline pool five days a week at 7 a.m.
For Nordby, Winnie and Cooley, this will be their first international competition.
Kavadas, age 75, will compete in her third international meet; she previously competed in Toronto in 1977 and in Perth, Australia, in 1999. Many people build their vacation around where there is a pool for the kids; Kavadas built her three-week vacation in Australia around the swim meet and pools to train ahead of time. At Stanford, she will compete in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke and the 100 and 200 breaststroke and relays.
In 1950, Margaret Hoppe Winnie, now of Edmonds, set a new record and won a medal in the 50 butterfly at Green Lake. At the world championships this week, she will swim the 50 and 100 freestyle and the 50 and 100 breaststroke. The chance to swim the same race — the 50 butterfly — is a maybe, she said after her morning workout. Winnie, now 73, competes in the 70-74 age group.
Shoreline resident and former Olympic synchronized-swimming coach Charlotte Davis is no stranger to international competitions. In 1984 she was the coach for Tracie Ruiz and Candy Costie when they won Olympic gold for the United States in synchronized swimming. Now Davis consults in synchronized swimming and swims regularly with O’Leary at the Shoreline pool.
In a recent Port Orchard competition, Davis set a new world record in the 400 individual medley, an event in which the swimmer does 100 meters each of the backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle. Davis will defend her world record and compete in the 55-59 age group at the championships.
Mike Nordby of Lake Forest Park said swim training “allows him to complete a task each morning while others are sleeping.” He became a Masters swimmer 18 months ago, when he retired. Nordby will swim the 200 and 400 IMs as well as the 100 and 200 breaststroke, plus the 200 backstroke and three relays.
He is taking full advantage of his first international meet and said, “I’m not nervous, I’m excited.” He is also confident and expects to set all new PRs (personal records) at the meet.
Cooley is competing in her first international meet, in the open-water competition in San Francisco Bay near Alameda. The length of the event is three kilometers, just under two miles. Cooley became a Masters swimmer at age 29 and competes in the 45-49 age group. She said that the open-water swim “was more satisfying for me.”
Winnie said her doctor told her that “she was addicted to endorphins.” Her advice for others, Winnie said, is to think of physical training as “the fountain of youth.”
Dana Twight writes for the UW News Lab.
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