59-year-old Gregory Rotole of Sarasota, Florida learned how to swim at age of 46. 12 years later, he is swimming butterfly and will attempt to complete this year’s Swim Miami 5 km butterfly.
The Florida Maverick Masters swimmer explains, “It’s better late to learn how to swim. You have to use what you got. 5 kilometers butterfly is a logical progression after my 4-mile individual medley swim under the Golden Gate Bridge. Why not swim the other three strokes in open water? Swimming the other three strokes in open water is a most liberating experience. I’m in the process of writing a book on how to train for open water medley swims. It is a complex endeavor. But I don’t swim distance fly six days a week, rather just one. I swim all four strokes to avoid overuse injuries – stretching, sculling, and flexibility are the keys, as opposed to muscularity. The originators of the 4-mile Golden Gate Medley Swim are English Channel swimmers Becky Fenson and Tom Keller. I’m just following in their footsteps.”
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