Swimming Through Life with Judy Young

Seven swims, seven golds, six records. Judy Young dominated the YMCA Masters Championship and, with over three decades of competitive swimming to her name, she shows no sign of slowing down—and that’s an incredible feat for a woman who is 96 years old. 

Young only began her competitive career in her sixties and, although she wasn’t interested in competing when she started, Young soon discovered she was “good at it.” Her love of competition grew over the years, especially thanks to a friendly rivalry. She says it was fun having the titles go back and forth and it spurred Young on to keep swimming and racing. 

As Young progressed through the age categories, a lot of her competition wasn’t as fortunate with their health so, she turned her attention more to the clock. At the YMCA Masters Championship, Young was the only female swimmer in the 95-99 category but, even without any competition in the pool, Young says she still swam hard. “I still swam as if I had competition. I wanted to work at it so in years to come it’s a hard record for someone else to break.” Young swam in freestyle and backstroke events ranging from 50-500m and broke three records, set three new ones, and won all of seven of her events.

Young credits her good health to swimming. “I’m very grateful for my general health. I’ve kept moving because I enjoy it—that’s the key to the whole thing.” While she praises the physical benefits swimming has afforded her, Young says that swimming also gave her a community. “The friendship is wonderful,” she says of her teammates and other competitors. “The nice part is that we all talk to each other. Even if you’re not on the same team, the whole crowd is social.” Along with her team, Young’s family traveled from across the USA to cheer her on and help celebrate.“It was a great weekend for a mini family reunion,” Young beams.  

Young still swims almost every day at her local YMCA in Jamestown and says if she makes it to 100 years old, she’ll return to the Championship.