Ellen Reynolds to Be Inducted to MISHOF in 2026

For some people, turning 60 is usually a less-than thrilling expertise; the passage of time typically triggers anxiousness about what’s to return sooner or later.

But for a lot of Masters swimmers, together with Ellen Reynolds, getting old up is a main alternative to be even higher than you have been final 12 months.

In 2024, Reynolds did simply that when she matured into the 60–64 age group, taking full benefit of that chance to proceed her dominance in a few of the hardest swimming occasions contested in Masters meets. She additionally sealed her destiny as one of the crucial versatile and finest Masters swimmers ever, an appellation that will probably be made official this coming May when she’s formally inducted into the Masters International Swimming Hall of Fame.

That accolade acknowledges some 20 years of excellence and diligence by Reynolds, who has by some means managed to suit a powerful Masters swimming profession in across the always-on-call lifetime of a pediatric surgeon in Boise, Idaho.

Reynolds, a member of Team Redbird, had grown up a swimmer, however she put her love affair with swimming on maintain throughout school and medical faculty. Residency, fellowships, and establishing a profession saved her away from the pool till she was almost 40 years outdated.

Then, in an effort to get again in form—all these years away from swimming within the high-stress world of treating essentially the most weak of sufferers had taken a toll—Reynolds started swimming once more. Before lengthy, she’d rekindled a love of competitors that has led her to set 87 USMS particular person data and rack up greater than 300 Top 10 achievements.

But as Reynolds eyed her sixtieth birthday, she determined to step again from drugs so she might pour extra power into Masters swimming.

“My goal was to go to a bunch of swim meets because normally I only get to go to a couple per year,” she says. “I wanted to see what events I could do and how hard I could push myself.”

That technique paid off. She set 26 AQUA Masters world data in the course of the 2024–2025 season.

Reynolds, now 61, credit her success partly to the assist she will get from her fiancé, Brian Johnson, who she describes as a “land animal to my water person.” Even although he’s not likely a swimmer, he will get why that is essential to her and the dedication wanted to do it so superlatively. “It’s nice to have someone with you that’s willing to sit at a swim meet all day,” she says.

One of Reynolds’s most cherished recollections is of competing on the World Aquatics Masters Championship meet in Doha, Qatar, in 2024, which she says was “just a super fun meet.” Leading as much as Doha, Reynolds and Johnson spent a number of weeks in Australia so she might “really swim long course.” That precision coaching apparently paid off in spades as she set the usual for girls within the 60–64 age group in 5 occasions at Doha:

• 200 backstroke – 2:30.58
• 100 backstroke – 1:110.22
• 200 IM – 2:34.27
• 400 IM – 5:30.07
• 200 breaststroke – 3:00.11

Reynolds’s success in Masters hasn’t been in a single day. Indeed, she says, “it took a long time to get moving and get back in shape,” however she has clearly not solely gotten again in form however continues to outpace her earlier self. She didn’t compete in school, and he or she says the important thing to her success has been simply persevering with to constantly present up and put within the arduous work.

“If you look back over my times for 20 years, they get better, and then they’re just consistent,” she says, which whereas persevering with to age means she has perpetually made features in power and endurance to offset the inevitable decline that creeps in over time.

“It was just consistent, hard work and really focusing on technique and mindset. I’m just fortunate that I was able to do that,” she provides.

And in reflecting on what this honor means to her, Reynolds is fast to level out that she hasn’t carried out it alone. For the primary decade-plus in Masters swimming, Reynolds was coached by her mother, Mary Ann Reynolds, who put in quite a lot of time and power to assist her daughter in her quest to set data and win races.

For the previous 5 years or so, since her mother stepped again from teaching her, Reynolds has been working with Kristen Hill. Hill will not be on-deck however “is really good at writing me appropriate workouts with the goals I have in mind,” Reynolds says.

Reynolds additionally thanks her coaching associate, John Rubocki, a member of Sawtooth Masters, for preserving her on level throughout every a kind of exercises. “He’s always just wiling to show up and do whatever work,” she says. “He’s one of the few people willing to do it because he’s a 200 flyer.” Read: He’s obtained an innate willingness to undergo when wanted.

She additionally desires to offer a shoutout to Jelena Kunovac, who began the digital Team Redbird. “It’s been wonderful because she collected a group of ladies 60 and older that really love to swim. None of us train together and we’re all different swimmers,” however that they had a ball collectively ruling the pool in Doha.

And she says she’d be remiss if she didn’t particularly thank all of the meet officers, referees, and volunteers who work so arduous behind the scenes to make Masters swim meets attainable. “If we don’t have swim meets, then you can’t get to do the events.”

For the previous a number of months, Reynolds and Johnson have shifted focus to chase his dream: getting a ship and cruising the world on it. They spent the summer season puttering across the Baltic Sea and assembly all types of attention-grabbing individuals and seeing a brand new a part of the world. Because of that, Reynolds has taken a bit of break from competing, however she nonetheless will get within the pool at any time when she will to remain in form.

But lest you assume she’s going to hold up her goggles for good, relaxation assured, there’s little question rather more speedy swimming forward for this phenomenal swimmer; it’s arduous to maintain an avowed competitor out of the water for lengthy. 

In the meantime, Reynolds says she’s “really honored” to be named to the MISHOF class of 2026. “It certainly validates all the hard work I’ve been doing. But it’s not why I did it. It’s not why I swim. I swim because I love to swim and be in the water. For me, it’s just a way to be grateful for everybody who’s helped me along the journey.”