Breaking Swimming Records at the age of 60!

By the blink of an eye, Bowmanville’s Mike Patrick accomplished something that’s never been done before in this country.

Actually, by less than a blink of an eye.

Patrick became the first swimmer in the history of Canada to break 60 at 60; that is, to swim the 100-metre freestyle in less than a minute competing in the 60-and-over age group.

His time? 59.99 seconds. As close at it gets.

“When I hit the wall and flipped back my goggles to see the electronic scoreboard, I couldn’t believe it,” recalled Patrick, who set the mark in the Pan Am pool in Markham at the the masters provincials. “Obviously I was pretty excited. This is something that’s been a goal now for quite awhile.”

Patrick doesn’t actually turn 60 until November, but in swimming terms, he turned 60 when the calendar flipped to 2016.

Both he and coach Karen Hillis at the Clarington Swimming Club had been eying the possibility of breaking the record for the past couple of years, and the swimming community was abuzz about the chance of it happening in Markham.

But, not even Hillis was confident Patrick would pull it off at the provincial meet, focusing more on the upcoming nationals, May 20-23 in Etobicoke, thanks to setbacks caused by illnesses earlier in the year.

In fact, in two previous meets he entered this year, Patrick had to withdraw from one due to the flu and was well off the mark in there other, which came too quickly after an emergency surgery.

“Antibiotics and aerobic events don’t mix, so I failed at that one,” he pointed out.

He was feeling good heading into the provincials, however, and indeed dominated every event he entered, winning six gold medals and breaking three other Canadian records -- in the 200, 800 and 1500 free.