Racing at the World Masters Championships – Singapore 2025
In August, I stood behind the blocks at the World Masters Swimming Championships in Singapore, racing four events in the 55–59 age group. It was the culmination of two years of training and the payoff for months of pool work, dryland strength sessions, and a whole lot of early mornings.
The Journey to Worlds
Training for Singapore wasn’t a straight line — there were plenty of ups and downs along the way. My program pulled together a mix of elements:
4–5 swims a week: dedicated sprints, race-pace endurance sessions, and countless pacing sets. Race practice was critical — broken swims, stroke rate work, and practising starts on the backstroke ledge until they became automatic.
Strength training (3× per week): Olympic lifts, plyometrics, and endless pull-ups to keep building power in the water.
Spin & Pilates: spin classes to build the engine, and reformer Pilates to keep my shoulders, core, and hips aligned.
It was a blend of hard grind and careful recovery: compression sleeves when tendonitis flared, massage when training stress piled up, and deliberate days out of the water so I could come back sharper.
Some days I felt unstoppable; other days, tendonitis or fatigue made me wonder what I was doing. But every time I came back to the same answer: because competing at this level, in this stage of life, matters to me. The challenge matters.
The Racing
Singapore brought heat, humidity, and some of the fastest Masters swimmers in the world. My focus was on the 100m and 200m backstroke, and the 200m and 400m freestyle.
I came away with four Top-10 finishes in the 55–59 age group:
7th – 100m Backstroke (1:21.79)
9th – 200m Backstroke (3:00.79)
10th – 200m Freestyle (2:34.20)
10th – 400m Freestyle (5:31.39)
Each race carried its own story. The 200 backstroke tested pacing discipline I’d drilled in training — and I found myself lacking there. The 400 free demanded a mental push through that third-hundred lull. The 100 back was about pure execution: nailing the start, holding stroke rate, and bringing it home under fatigue. I came away happiest with my 200 free, and I’m inspired to drive that time lower with more targeted work.
What I Learned
Racing at Worlds is never just about the clock. It’s about stacking thousands of small training decisions and trusting they’ll hold together when it counts. Singapore proved that my blend of swim, strength, and cross-training is on the right path.
It also showed me where the margins live — those fine details that separate solid swims from breakthrough ones:
Starts and turns still separate top-10 from top-5.
Stroke rate under fatigue makes or breaks a backstroke race.
Recovery between events is as important as the races themselves.
The Road Ahead
Singapore was the checkpoint, not the finish line. The longer-term roadmap points toward Budapest 2027, when I’ll age up into the next bracket. Between now and then, the focus is on sharpening skills, pushing times lower (hello sub-1:20 backstroke), and keeping Masters swimming the lifelong, competitive, and joyful pursuit it deserves to be.
Even after decades away from my teenage bests, I’m proving to myself that progress is still possible. That’s the real takeaway: you can still get faster, smarter, and stronger — no matter your age.
