Laura Val

W50-59
Laura Val
Swimming
Santa Clara, Calif .

For nurse manager Laura Val, 56, competitive swimming is just what the doctor ordered. She gets up six days a week in her Santa Clara, Calif., home, goes to the pool and swims 5,000 meters -- and into the record books.

At the U.S. Masters Swimming Long Course Meters Championships, which were held in August in The Woodlands, Texas, during a brutal stretch of triplecdigit temperatures, Val set age-group world records in five events:

• 100-meter freestyle (1:02.02)
• 50-meter backstroke (33.96)
• 50-meter freestyle (28.84)
• 50-meter butterfly (31.83)
• 100-meter butterfly (1:10.21)

For that remarkable meet, Val has been named the women's 50-59 GeezerJock of the Year. But that meet was not out of the ordinary for Val. She holds Masters world records in a bevy of events. Val has been at this for awhile.

In 2001, she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and a year later she was awarded a place in the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame. The honors are nice, but for Val the exercise of swimming is its own greatest reward. "I swim because I love to swim. I don't do it for the accolades," she says.

She started swimming competitively at 10 and participated in Amateur Athletic Union meets until she was 21 and a junior in college. Val notes that was before Title IX provided ample athletic opportunities for women. "At that time, I thought I was done with swimming," she says.

Val said the thinking then was that women swimmers peaked in their mid-teens and were over-the-hill at age 20. "We know now that's not true," says Val.

Her return to competition began at age 34 when a friend encouraged her to get back into swimming. She says she has a personal obligation to be a good role model to the younger swimmers and triathletes she trains with. "I kind of feel because I am the oldest that I have to work hard to keep up," says Val.

Her next big challenge is the XII FINA Masters World Championships in Perth, Australia, in April. "We get into Perth the day before swimming competition starts. It will be interesting to see how we react to the time change and the 20-hour flight. I'm really looking forward to it," Val says.