Great grandmother still breaking swimming world records at age 95

By Isobel Williams

Meet the great-grandmother still breaking swimming world records aged 95.

Jane Asher recently bagged five age group world records - adding to her already 100-strong collection.

The swmming legend, from Merton Park, south London, also has a British Empire Medal for her dedication to the sport and is in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Looking back on her long and impressive career - which includes 26 gold medals - Jane credits her love of the water for her good health and happiness.

She said: “It does keep you healthy. I have taught people who just had surgery and their doctors were amazed by how much they had improved because of the swimming.

“I want to show people what a lot of fun you can have if you like competing and how good you feel when you work hard at something.

“Sport is very important and quite a lot of youngsters now have put on weight. Swimming doesn’t help you to lose weight but it finds the muscles.

“It opened a whole new world for me. It made me happy and healthy.”

Jane was born in Zambia, South Africa, and spent most of her childhood in Johannesburg where her English mother taught her to swim.

The obsession with swimming only grew at boarding school, where she was allowed to use the pool on her own in the mornings, mostly doing backstroke.

The grandmother of 11 and great-grandmother of six moved around a lot, but she always joined the local swimming teams, and even once joined a rowing club just to be in the water.

Jane later got married to a vet named Robbie, and when he had an accident at work, she decided to get a job teaching swimming at the local school to help with bills.

She said: “My mom was taught to swim in the sea in Cornwall and she was addicted to water. We spent all of our free time just jumping in and out of the water. I took to it quite quickly.

“The war was on when I was at school so we didn’t have competitions, but I swam every morning to get rid of some energy.

“In my first race a girl said that I kicked like hell. It was because my mother was watching. Now every time I have a backstroke race I think ‘mom is up there watching.’”

After moving to teaching adults how to swim, Jane started entering in masters swimming competitions when she was 50-years-old, and broke 100 records by 80.

The legendary swimmer broke her first European record at an 800m race in Crystal Palace - after a wedding where she had a few drinks.

She competes in several different races, but her favourite to swim is the individual medley which involves backstroke, breaststroke, front crawl, and butterfly.

Jane added: “When my husband died I started filling the time but it was hard because there is this big hole in your life. But swimming has given me such good friends and they give back to me.

“All of my kids are very sporty and I am very proud of them, and I didn’t realise that they are proud of me.

“Without friends life doesn’t happen. There is always somebody pushing you on. I think that is what keeps me going, somebody waiting for me.

“I couldn’t do half of what I have done without the friends who have helped me enter. You have to do everything online now. As you get to 95 everything goes so quickly and you get slower.”

On advice for the younger generation, Jane says to make sure to keep active and swim where you can in order to be healthy.

She says that to be a good swimmer you need to learn how to relax, and get a good teacher.

She said: “It is a really good non-contact sport. You can’t hurt yourself. Running hurts your knees and your hips and even tennis causes shoulder problems.

“I had a good kick with very strong legs and a strong buttocks.

“It is good to have something to think about. It is a bit like meditation. That is the secret of course, you must not stiffen up because then you go down like a stone.”

Jane has no plans to slow down now, as she is currently working towards her next competition and another potential world record in Budapest.