The story of the 95-year-old swimmer who has dozens of records — and continues to compete

Jane Asher only entered swimming competitions in the 1990s, after her husband’s death. Since then, he has achieved 52 world records.

At 95 years old, Jane Asher is no ordinary grandmother.

In addition to always being attentive to her four children and 11 grandchildren, practicing Tai Chi Chuan, pilates and painting, the British never stops collecting medals and other swimming awards.

“This sport just makes me feel good and keeps me healthy,” he told the BBC.

After getting yours in March fifth world record in swimmingAsher doesn’t seem to have any intention of leaving the pools.

Not even the surgeries he faced in recent years, replacing both hips, were able to make him envision the possibility of ending his sporting career.

“I will continue to swim for as long as I can,” he told Marathon Swims, the portal for the swimming marathon held every year in London.

“After swimming, I get out of the water and I feel like I can go anywhere“, highlighted the athlete.

Asher is inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and received the British Empire Medalfor his dedication to this sport.

Now, the nonagenarian swimmer aims to try to break another world record at the next championship in Budapest, Hungary. To do this, follow a training routine that includes swimming sessions four times a week.

Unusual career

Asher’s sporting career is surprising, to say the least. There was no indication that swimming would end up taking up so much space in his life.

“I was born in Northern Rhodesia [atual Zâmbia] ea River water was full of crocodiles and hippos“, he told the TNT Sports channel, four years ago. “That’s why I only swam after I turned seven.”

Her first encounter with a pool occurred when her family moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, after the future swimmer contracted malaria.

Asher’s maternal family had a special relationship with waterdue to its origins in the famous region of Cornwall, on the coast of England.

“My mother loved swimming,” he says. “Her mother taught her to swim in Cornwallat sea. I carry the love for cold water in my blood.”

At the age of 22, Asher moved to the United Kingdom, where he began to enter, little by little, the world of sport.

He was part of the swimming team at the University of Manchester, in England. After graduating and getting married, abandoned competitionsbut did not completely move away from swimming pools.

“I started competing because I was teaching swimming to primary school children,” she told BBC Sport in 2015.

“And because some of them were really good, I said, ‘We should participate in some competitions.’ But some of them were afraid.”

“Come, let’s compete“, he told his students, to take away their fear and give them confidence.

“The result is that I did very well, even though I was 40 years old and they were some kids. Someone saw me and said, ‘Do you know that there are competitions for adults?‘”

“It’s not about the medals”

But Asher only began competing professionally in the 1990s, after her husband’s death.

“When you teach other people to swim, you actually don’t get to train very much,” according to her. “But before he died, my husband said: ‘Now you can do what you love.’”

Shortly thereafter, Asher traveled to the United States and broke his first master record (for swimmers over 25 years old) in freestyle, within their age category.

Since then, he hasn’t stopped accumulating awards. The feeling is that she is trying to make up for lost time.

But Asher assures that standing on the podium and receiving recognition is not what drives her.

“It’s not about the medals,” she declared on the TNT Sports channel. “I don’t collect them anymore because I have nowhere to store them..”

According to Swimming World magazine, Jane Asher won the gold medal at the national championships in the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands. And also set 52 world recordsin four different age categories.

“Swimming is a wonderful world,” he says.

“We swimmers form a big family. You can be 18 years old or 90, in one minute and 21 seconds you speak the same language.”

She says she is ashamed of being considered an inspiration. Asher says anticipating being seen as “persuasive.”

“I hope others say, ‘Well, if she can do it, so can I, I’ll try’“, concludes Asher.