Would You Swim on Vacation? Britta O'Leary's Masters Swimming Journey, EP 265

Elite masters champion Britta O'Leary, a member of Georgia Masters, joins us to share her inspiring journey as she transitions into the 40-44 age group. Britta offers an inside look at her recent experiences at the South Carolina Short Course Meters Championships, revealing the delicate balance she maintains between her swimming passion and her bustling personal life. Despite a hectic year filled with extensive travel and family commitments, Britta's story is one of resilience and adaptability. She candidly discusses the challenges she faces and how she manages to keep her training on track through it all. Britta emphasizes the true essence of master swimming—having fun, setting diverse goals, and most importantly, listening to one's body as we age. Britta swam in college at the University of Miami, Florida.

Swimming as a lifelong sport is a central theme in our conversation, with Britta highlighting the flexibility it offers. The episode underscores that it's perfectly fine to step away when life demands it, knowing that the pool is always there when you’re ready to return. The beauty of master swimming lies in its accessibility, allowing enthusiasts to re-engage at any time, whether it's once a week or more. Britta's insights remind us of the profound fitness and community benefits that even a small connection to the sport can provide. We express our heartfelt gratitude to Britta for sharing her experiences and wish her the best in her ongoing swimming journey and future pursuits. Tune in to be inspired by Britta’s unwavering commitment to keeping the joy of swimming alive.

Email us at [e-mail]. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
I am doing an on-deck interview with Britta O'Leary.
She is an elite swimmer,multiple national titles for
master swimming, and your agegroup is 40 to 44.
You've just aged up and I'vehad so many people tell me that
I need to interview you.
So we were just talking beforewe started recording.
Here we are at the SouthCarolina Short Course meters

(00:25):
championships.
It's a great meet and we weretalking in the warm down pool
and we were talking before.
You swam at the University ofMiami and both of your parents
were Olympians, not in swimming.
So tell us like how your meetis going and what kind of your
swimming's been like the lastyear.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, I'm happy to do that.
First of all, thank you so muchfor doing this.
This is really fun.
Yeah, my last year, beinghonest, I struggled a little bit
with swimming.
You know, aging up, usually youlook forward to a new age group
, but for me, the most importantthing here right now this
weekend is really to have funand find the fun.
We're all master swimmers.

(01:07):
This is our hobby, this is nota job, so we're all here to have
fun.
Yes, we like fast times, butoverall, meeting the people you
know, coming to a differentstate I'm originally from
Georgia and now we're in SouthCarolina it's just super fun and
I just enjoy being here andcheering people on and, yeah,
seeing where I stand right nowin my training.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
So one of the things that I wanted to ask you about
that I overheard that we weretalking about, with a few of us
standing around, so you can goto a national championship and
win, but if you don't hit yourtime, you're not happy, like
it's not the place that you'regoing for it's it's a time right
, so can you tell us about that?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
yeah, specifically this past summer, when I aged up
, I wanted to go for times.
Obviously, when you age up, youlook at the record sometimes
and then you're like okay, thisis a time I can really hit, and
especially at nationals, whenyou swim in your age group, you
don't always have thecompetition next to you.
That's why I really appreciatethe mixed heats, for example, at

(02:12):
this meet here, where you swimnext to men and they can pull
you right.
Yes, sometimes you get the wave, so that's the negative.
But these meets like this meethere, sometimes it's better for
me to actually hit faster timesbecause I have people next to me
and I don't swim by myself.
So, yeah, this past summer Ireally went for times.

(02:32):
I didn't necessarily go forplacing, but before the year,
before the summer, before, Iwent to world championships and
I didn't care about times, Ijust wanted to place and my goal
at world championships was Iwant to bring home a gold medal.
I had been to worldchampionships twice before and I
was always second and so I waslike in Fukuoka, I want to win a
gold medal.
I didn't care about the time,the time also wasn't great, but

(02:54):
I won gold right and that wasgoal achieved and yeah.
So I think that's why you havedifferent expectations,
different goals for every swimmeet that you go to, and I think
it's important to set thoseexpectations before.
Like I said earlier today,tomorrow my goal is to have fun.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
I like it.
I like it.
So you said your training forthe last year may not have been
ideal.
What has your training for thelast year been like?

Speaker 2 (03:27):
My family likes to travel.
We like to travel a lot and westarted actually traveling even
more extensively over the summer.
So we spent six weeks in Greece, on a beautiful Greek island
called Syros.
I found a 50-meter pole, but ithad a huge draft in one
direction and it had major windfrom the ocean in the other
direction, so it made athree-second difference in a 50

(03:50):
breaststroke.
So that was mentally hard.
So after a week of struggling Ithrew out the watch and I tried
my best and that was.
We came back and I had a weekand a half to get ready for
nationals and that's why I wasstruggling at nationals as well.
Yeah, so overall I liketraveling a lot.
I'm originally from Germany, soit's in my blood to kind of

(04:11):
travel internationally.
But you know, struggling,juggling a full-time job, my
hobby of swimming, a family, twokids it's a lot sometimes.
And you know we're all masterswimmers.
This is our hobby and justfinding the balance every year
again with different things thatyou want to do in your life is
hard.
And so this past year travelwas our priority, swimming was

(04:36):
not.
Swimming was a priority theyear before, when I went to
world championships, and so Iguess, with master swimming
every year.
You have to find that newbalance for your life between
family, your job, swimming andany other hobby that you do, and
then see you know where youstand.

(04:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
I like it.
So what would be two or threethings that you found within
master swimming that you need todo to swim at your best,
because I know you know welongtime master swimmers we kind
of like know what our bodyneeds or what we respond to.
What are two or three thingsthat you think make you sharper
in master swimming?

Speaker 2 (05:18):
What I really learned over the years is listening to
your body.
The older we get, we can'tthink we can train like we are
25 anymore, so it's a challengeas well, but it's also something
to look forward to.
Right what works for me, whatdoesn't work for me, I have to
adjust my training.
I have to listen more to mybody.
So that's definitely somethingthat I'm taking more to heart

(05:40):
now that I also aged up into anew age group.
And then the having fun partright, this is a hobby.
We are all here because we lovedoing this.
Our heart is in the sport, soit doesn't matter if you swim
fast, if you swim slow, as longas you have a good time.
That is really what you shouldfocus on, and that's also
something and what I love aboutthe Masters community.

(06:01):
Yes, we go to meet, we want toswim fast, but hey, as long as
you're fun, like goal achieved.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Your swim in the 100 IM todaywas a 106.
I mean, putting that inperspective, I'm really hoping
in an all out freestyle I'mgoing to go 106, not just four
strokes.
But so was that a time that youwere happy with?
And tell us about, like, howthat 100 IM felt?

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, it was my last swim for the day so I just told
myself you can die now, it'sfine, you have nothing left
after this.
So, yes, I'm happy with thetime.
I had zero expectations for the100 IM.
I haven't done the 100 IM showplus meters in a year, so it's
really just.
You know, once a year you swima show plus meters meet.
Yeah, and I love IM.

(06:54):
I'm an IM, or usually 200 I am.
I just love the four strokes.
You have a 425 all out prettymuch, yeah, and I lost 25 or so
myself.
It doesn't matter, leave it allin the pool today, I am as fun
right.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
coming back to the fun part, yeah, especially if
you're a breaststroker like youare.
So tomorrow you have your 200breast and um.
Do you have any tips forbreaststroke training?
Because I'm sure you do somebreaststroke training, like what
might be a good breaststrokeset you do.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
So I'm a 200 breaststroke but which makes a
huge difference to actuallysprint breaststroke.
So that's important to say.
I really like 200 breaststroke,or even I train a lot of IM for
the breaststroke part as well.
But before going into a set likeI like 9-100s, for example,
9-100 breaststroke, descent, or50 fast, 50 easy things like

(07:41):
that I need a lot of time tofind my stroke in breaststroke
and that too, instead of justfocusing on you know, swimming,
a lot of yardage, breaststrokeyou really need to focus on your
technique and breaststroke.
And when you also talk to elitebreaststrokers they tell you,
hey, 90% of the timebreaststroke doesn't feel great

(08:02):
and that's exactly how it is andyou just need to be okay with
that.
And you need to do lots ofdrills and lots of drilling.
One of my favorite breaststrokedrill is breaststroke kick and
then you alternate breaststrokeand butterfly arms because it
really gets your hips up, itgets you going and kind of like
I call it riding the wave.
That's kind of like how youfeel in breaststroke then and

(08:23):
just that, and then alsoparachute swimming and stretch
cord swimming and breaststroke.
So those are really things thatI try to incorporate into my
breaststroke training and notreally just focusing on yardage.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Boy, I love that.
Tell me your thoughts onGabrielle Rose and what she did,
being six years older than youare.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yes, so oh my God, my first.
She just won the $59.99 on herbreaststroke last week and my
first thought was I'm sendingout this next age group.
Oh my God.
No, she is amazing.
I met her at Irvine at the LongCourse Nationals.
She's actually the sister ofone of our multi-sport coaches
at Dynamo in Atlanta, where Itrain at, and so I learned a

(09:08):
little bit more from him howshe's training.
It's mind-blowing, it's amazing.
I can only have full respectfor her.
She's an amazing athlete.
We're happy to have her as amaster swimmer and she's such a
great ambassador for the sportof swimming when you get older
so incredible.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yes, yeah, so, and those listeners that we most are
most of you listening areswimmers.
But Gabrielle Rose is the 46year old woman who made the
Olympic trials finals in herbreaststroke events and is
demolishing records, and she wasa two time Olympian, but one of
the things that you know havinglistened to a lot of her
background she never stoppedswimming, so she really never

(09:47):
took a break from swimming.
So I love that.
For people who say they'regoing to retire from swimming, I
just wish they would say I'mgoing to take a pause and then
swimming is a life sport.
So tell me and our listenersabout your ideas about swimming
until you're 80.
And when you see these people,what are your thoughts on the

(10:10):
fact that we should keepswimming?

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Swimming is a sport for life.
How do I feel about competing?
I really, by now, take it yearby year and I was like you know
what Life gets in the way, right, your job gets in the way,
maybe you don't feel great,maybe you want to travel
extensively.
So take it year by year andmaster swimming.
Don't focus too much on oh mygod, I have to do this.

(10:34):
So a lot of people they keepswimming but they might not
compete right, so we swim forthe exercise.
We can swim so we can eat.
A lot of people here say I swimso I can eat.
We still love swimming, butjust the pressure and the the
mental part of competing is hard.
So I think that's why, comingback to I will assess it year by

(10:57):
year and, honestly, if I stilllove the sport so much and I
still feel like I want tocompete at 80, I'd love to do
that.
But this is a year by yearthing.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, I love that.
So is there anything that Ihave not asked you that you
would like to share with ourlisteners?

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Keep up your love for swimming.
It's a fantastic sport, havefun with it and even if you get
discouraged, take a step back.
It's okay.
I just talked to a friend ondeck here earlier and I said you
know, when I started masterswimming, some of my teammates
they would disappear for like afew years and then come back
competing and it just wasmind-blowing to me how you could

(11:39):
do that.
And now, as I get older, I'mlike oh, I totally understand
that things get in the way.
You get busy, you don't havethat much time to train, so you
step back from competing.
But then the beautiful thingabout masters is you can come
back anytime and I think I'mtaking that more and more to
heart and I think all of our,like all swimmers, should take

(12:00):
that to heart as well that thisis a lifelong sport.
Just because you can't make aswim meet or maybe can't swim as
much as you want for a fewyears, even, you can still come
back and get back into it.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yes, I love that.
Yeah, and even I think evenonce a week, like if your life
is just so busy, just it makes adifference than when you take
that two years off and you don'ttouch the water Even once a
week, just makes a hugedifference.
So, thank you so much forjoining me today, Britta.
Best of luck with the rest ofeverything.
Thank you so much for having me.