As all eyes were on Tokyo and the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics, 86-year-old island resident Gene Greenberg brought the gold a little closer to home after competing in the 2021 U.S. Masters Swimming Short Course National Championship in Greensboro, N.C.
The July competition wasn’t for the faint of heart, as the event attracts some of the nation’s top athletes. Among the 849 participants, competing in the 18-and-up age and gender groups, were swimmers who had competed in the 1996, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics. A membership-operated nonprofit, U.S. Masters Swimming is comprised of some 65,000 swimmers nationwide.
And while Greenberg was not able to claim the title of oldest master swimmer – there was one man and two women in the age 90 to 94 categories – his results were impressive.
“My goal was to be in the top five in the country in the events that I would swim in. I did better than I thought I would,” said Greenberg with a big grin. “I swam in a 50-yard freestyle, and I came in fifth place; 100-yard freestyle and came in fourth place; 200-yard freestyle and came in third place; 500-yard freestyle and ended up being National Champion.”
Greenberg said he didn’t really begin swimming seriously until later in life. He only swam for one year during high school and, despite making it to a city championship in New York City, hung up his swim goggles to play basketball in college.
He didn’t dive back into the pool until moving to South Florida from Long Island with wife Shelly in 1974. At age 40, he began a 12-year stint swimming with a master’s team in Coral Springs. After retiring from the chain of trophy stores he had opened in the state, they moved to Vero Beach permanently in 2001. They continue to reside at the Racquet Club, across from Jaycee Beach.
Greenberg said he has failed at retirement several times, quickly becoming bored with a daily routine of exercise, breakfast and reading the paper from cover to cover.
Fate took his love of swimming to the next level when the North County Aquatic Center opened and put out a call for lifeguards. Greenberg took and passed the Red Cross course at age 67 and, according to the Red Cross, has the distinction of being the oldest rookie lifeguard in the country.
Greenberg developed his own workout routine to stay in shape, and soon began coaching a master’s program at the pool.
He eventually moved to the Leisure Square facility and coached the master’s program there for more than 10 years. It was during that time that Greenberg was introduced to the Special Olympics program, and he drafted his swim students to help coach the participants.
“We started out with people who would only be in the shallow water and walk. By the end of the season, they were in swim meets,” he recalled. “How can you beat that?”
He commented that he has played a lot of tennis during his lifetime, but with two knee replacements, a hip replacement and major arm surgery, tennis and sports such as basketball and running became too hard on his body.
“But I can swim! Swimming gives me a chance to do very serious aerobic workouts, which I know are good for me without hurting any more of my joints. I was always athletic and competitive, but I can’t do those things anymore. It became something that I worked at and something that I just do for myself. It’s the secret to good health,” he explained.
Commenting that it is quite difficult to get started in competitive swimming unless you have a background in the sport, he decided to write a book. “Swimming for Life: A Guide to Swimming for Fitness, Health and Enjoyment” tells people how to get started and includes 50 workouts.
The most crucial aspect of swimming, shared Greenberg, is breathing. “People get into the water, and they forget to breathe. They hold their breath.”
As a gift to himself when he turned 50, Greenberg started the Interval Swim Birthday Club, in which he would swim one 50-yard timed interval for every year of his life. This year, he swam 86 50-yard intervals in less than two hours. And, although it’s been about five years since he stopped coaching, he still gets emails from former students telling him that they completed their own birthday swims.
Greenberg continues to make a big splash at the North County Pool, training at least three days a week with his swim buddies and coaching Special Olympics participants on Saturdays. For Greenberg, life is all about the next lap.
Photos by Kaila Jones
