INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Gabrielle Rose is realistic about her goals. She knows that a third Olympic Games are out of reach for her.
Alright.
This time, nothing for an even greater cause.
At the age of 46, Rose is by far the oldest athlete in the US Olympic swimming trials, earning her place among more than 1,000 entrants exactly two decades after her last appearance.
“I just hope to show people that you can do more, that you’re capable of doing more,” said Rose, who represented his native Brazil at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the United States at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney.
“You can have more energy, you can have more strength than you thought possible,” he continued, passion growing in his voice. “I want women in particular to not be afraid to be strong, lift weights, take care of themselves, and know that they can have so much more in the older chapters of their lives.”
Rose is an anomaly in the trials, to be sure, but she doesn’t seem out of place.
Competing in the 100-meter breaststroke heats, against seven swimmers who were less than half his age, Rose slid up the wall on the first Sunday in a personal best of 1 minute, 8.43 seconds, the first time he has broken the 1:09 barrier.
He finished with the 11th-fastest time overall in the preliminaries, advancing to an unlikely spot in the evening’s semifinals.
“That was my big goal,” Rose said, still beaming more than an hour after leaving the temporary pool at Lucas Oil Stadium. “He was very, very nervous because he only wanted to swim what he thought he was capable of doing. He came out this morning, so I am very, very happy.”
She was even faster in the semifinals, but her time of 1:08.32 was 10th overall, two spots shy of qualifying for Monday’s final.
Swimming is a youth activity, sure, but a handful of athletes at the American trials are defying the odds.
there is Matt Grevers, 39, a four-time Olympic gold medalist who got the urge to swim again when he heard tryouts were being held at the home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. She began training and managed to set the qualifying time in the 50 meter freestyle.
There’s Brandon Fischer, 35, who has never made it to the Olympics but can boast of having tied Michael Phelps by competing in the US Olympic Trials for the fifth time. The Californian will swim the 100 and 200 breaststroke in Indy.
“I still have aspirations to be a great Olympian, like all these other great Olympians that we’ve seen throughout history who made their mark,” Fischer said. “At the same time, we have to go back. You know this is the fifth time. You’re just grateful to be here.”
After failing to make the U.S. team at the 2004 trials, it appeared that Rose’s competitive swimming career was largely over. She dedicated herself to training, became a mother and focused on the less stressful Masters circuit to fuel her competitive fire.
Last year, after surprising herself by setting a personal best at the Masters spring national championships, she decided to make another run at the Olympic trials.
“I didn’t expect to have the best record of my life at 45 years old,” Rose said. “So I thought, ‘Let’s see what’s possible.’ It happens to coincide with the Olympic year and the Olympic trials. “I loved getting back to my roots as a professional athlete and knowing that this is a special time in my life, just to see what I’m capable of.”
It turned out that it was more than I ever imagined.
When he saw his time on the scoreboard, his face lit up with a big smile. The crowd of more than 17,000, including his 10-year-old daughter Annie, recognized what an extraordinary moment it was and serenaded him with an immediate standing ovation, and then another as he walked across the terrace.
It wasn’t his third Olympic Games, but it sure seemed that way.
Among those who finished behind Rose was Sarah Bennetts, who just finished her freshman year at UCLA.
“It’s crazy that he can run that fast,” Bennetts said. “When I’m 46, I’ll probably be sitting on the couch watching the Olympic trials.”
Fischer, who was bullied as a child and felt out of place in the rigid, demanding world of his youth as a swimmer, rediscovered his love for the sport when he turned 30.
He says his times are now faster than ever, even as he juggles swimming with his job at the secretive Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
The Masters circuit, which he had once dismissed as nothing more than a group of failed veterans, turned out to be a perfect fit for his philosophical and inquisitive personality.
“The culture is very different,” Fischer said. “The people are all adults. Everyone has a job. They are all married, have children, have careers. “They just want to go swimming in the morning, have fun and then go to the bar.”
For Rose, the opportunity to compete in one more event came at a perfect time in her life.
But she knows it’s just fun.
He has one more test left, the 200 meter breaststroke.
Your plans after that?
“I have to get back to real life,” he said, flashing another smile.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics