In the water, she's in her natural element

At age 77, Florence Carr is a top masters competitor in her age group. She is wild about swimming and swims for fun, exercise and competition. Carr started swimming at the young age of 10. She won many local races but could not compete in high school, college or even the Olympics as women weren't allowed. The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) did not discriminate and Carr competed regularly winning New York State championships in freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly, backstroke and individual medley events! This led to a professional swimming job including parts in the James Bond thriller Goldfinger and the Jerry Lewis comedy The Bell Bay.

With all of that behind Carr, she now resides in Florida and continues to win races. She was recently selected as the age 75-79 Masters Lady Swimmer of the Year by USA Swimming magazine. She set and still holds six national records from her 2001 competition.

In the 2001 nationals meet, Carr became the first woman her age to break the 35-second mark in the 50-yard freestyle and the 1:30 mark in the 100 freestyle. She swam 34.78 in the 50 and 1:19:38 in the 100. She also set records in the 200 freestyle, 50 backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly, plus the 100 and 200 individual medley races. This year in the 2002 nationals meet Carr won gold medlas in all six events she competed in for woman age 75-79.

She trains regularly getting up six days a week at 4:30 a.m. to be at the pool by 6:30 for a 1½-hour training session. "I swim 3,500 to 4,000 meters in each session," she said. "From it I get good exercise, which helps me stay healthy and sleep well. Swimming is very important to me. I also enjoy skiing, both water and snow."

*Reprinted by permission of The St Petersburg Times. © 2002 All right reserved.