Kathy Labukas grew up in Greenbelt and swam with its first swim team, the Sharks, which formed in 1957. The coach, Al Castaldi, had contacted her parents saying he needed a 6-year-old girl to complete the team, which led to her winning many events and becoming one of the top swimmers in the Princemont League that the Greenbelt team competed in – until she aged out at 18.
When she left for college – one that had no swimming pool at all – she put swimming on pause, but after returning to Greenbelt in 1985 she regularly took advantage of its new indoor pool, swimming for fitness, not competition.
Last year, Labukas started swimming with friends on the DC Water Wizards Senior Swim Team and got the urge to try competing once again. In September she swam in her first swim meet in 54 years at the DC Senior Games, winning all of the six events in which she competed, among women 70 to 74 years old.
Last month Labukas competed for Maryland in the National Senior Games in Pittsburgh and says it was quite a surprise to finish in the top 10 in the country in all her events. Her top individual showing was fourth place in the 100-yard backstroke. In a mixed individual medley relay (men and women, all in their 70s) she and her relay members won gold.
Participating in the National Senior Games was “challenging, exhausting and fun,” said Labukas, and she looks forward to qualifying for the next National Senior Games – in Des Moines, Iowa, in 2025.
Labukas appreciates all the encouragement she’s gotten, from far and near. “My friends have been very supportive of my choice to compete again later in life,” she said. “Former Greenbelter Mary Anne McDonald Papale, my friend since kindergarten, lives in Pittsburgh and came to video my first event and to cheer me on. And my roommate from the University of Dayton drove two-and-a-half hours from Cleveland to cheer me on.”
What’s Changed?
I asked Labukas what had changed about competitive swimming in all the years since her high school days. And it’s more than I’d imagined:
“Trying to complete a racing dive with goggles on and keep them on. We didn’t wear goggles in the 1950s and 60s, so this requires new strategies and skills.
“Flip-turns now include strong underwater dolphin kicks.
“Swimming strokes have also changed. Many things I was told not to do are now recommended, although with a little tweaking.”
Despite the hurdles, Labukas says she is sticking with it: “Swimming with a group is much more motivating than training on your own.” She recommends checking out the many Potomac Valley U.S. Masters swim teams in the area (like Montgomery Ancient Mariners and Terrapin Masters), where one can swim with others and get training from an experienced coach.
Susan Harris is editor of GreenbeltOnline.org, where this article was first published.