Renowned longevity expert and channel swimmer Dr. Peter Attia espouses four types of workouts to stay fit as people age. His four pillars of fitness include:

• strength
• stability
• steady cardio
• high intensity exercise

Dr. Attia is absolutely correct when he recommends people who aspire after long health spans try to balance their fitness routines with strength, stability, steady cardio, and high intensity exercises – especially when we look at the physique of the oldest and most successful marathon swimmers in history (see lists below).

When we consider the training regimen of the most successful marathon swimming septuagenarian in history – Pat Gallant-Charette – her dryland exercises largely mirror Dr. Attia’s recommendations.

Gallant-Charette, a retired nurse who is now an active farmer and beekeeper from Maine, has completed the following swims in her 70’s to date – and there are many more swims yet to be done:

• 19.6 km Santa Barbara Channel crossing in 9 hours 22 minutes (70)
• 20.5 km Sea of Galilee crossing in 8 hours 22 minutes (71)
• 26.2 km Bristol Channel crossing in 12 hours 55 minutes (71)
• 23.5 km Lake Malawi crossing in 13 hours 5 minutes (72)
• 26.4 km Lake Zurich crossing in 13 hours 10 minutes (72)

Gallant-Charette also completed 11 major marathon swims in her 60’s: 33.5 km English Channel, 32.2 km Catalina Channel, 19.5 km Tsugaru Channel, 35 km North Channel, 42 km Molokai Channel, 50.5 km Lake Ontario, 34.2 km Lake Tahoe, 36.2 km Loch Ness, 16.9 km Lake Windermere, and 39.6 km Lake Memphremagog.

What are her secrets?

• She can swim in any temperature of water well – from warm to cold
• She can swim for long durations – with 2 non-stop swims over 24 hours
• She can swim in any conditions – from tranquil to turbulent
• She is patient, level-headed, and composed – enabling her to deal with challenging situations
• She is self-confident and self-assured – with plenty of big-swim memories
• She is realistic and mature – she can deal well with an occasional DNF
• She has strength and stability – built up during the winter months and off-seasons

Unlike many swimmers, she does not use her time on dryland to do yoga or lift weights in a gym, or do specialized workouts in a fitness center or at a home exercise room. Rather, like the similarly venerable farmer Jim Clifford, Gallant-Charette works on the land, on her farm, in her gardens, and among her bee hives.

Her dryland workouts include a variety of homestead activities like boiling maple sap into syrup.   The boiling may look easy, but she has to lift and carry several buckets of sap – quite the workout, using her quads, hamstrings, glutes, core, arms, and shoulders.

She repeats hauling, lifting, and tapping the maple trees with younger family members, all the while keeping up with them and keeping them motivated.

Living in the state of Maine, Gallant-Charette also has to often do snow removal and works daily as a beekeeper…still going strong at the age of 72…

She built and maintains the bee hives and gardens with her granddaughter:

The Oldest English Channel Swimmers in History

There have been 5 swimmers who have crossed the English Channel in their 70’s (you can review different age divisions here on LongSwims):

• Dr. Otto Thaning in 2014 in 12 hours 52 minutes at the age of 73
• Linda Ashmore in 2018 in 16 hours 22 minutes at the age of 71
• Cyril Baldock in 2014 in 12 hours 45 minutes at the age of 70 (shown below on left)
• Dr. Roger Allsopp in 2011 in 17 hours 51 minutes at the age of 70
• George Brunstad in 2004 in 15 hours 59 minutes at the age of 70
• Donald Riddington in 2013 in 19 hours 45 minutes at the age of 68
• Christopher Shapland in 2016 in 16 hours 28 minutes at the age of 68 (shown below on right)

While Brunstad was the first septuagenarian to swim across the English Channel in 2004, there were 6 swimmers within a short time frame (2011 – 2016) who were between the ages of 68 and 73 who were successful in the English Channel. I suspect the decade of the 2020’s and 2030’s, there will be an even larger number of septuagenarians and, possibly, octogenarians who will be successful across the English Channel.

The Oldest Channel Swimmers in History

• Dr. Otto Thaning of South Africa completed a 33.5 km crossing of the English Channel at the age of 73 years and 6 months in 12 hours 52 minutes in 2014
• Linda Ashmore of Great Britain completed a 33.5 km crossing of the English Channel at the age of 71 years and 305 days in 16 hours 22 minutes in 2018.
• Toshio Tominaga of Japan completed a 19.5 km crossing of the Tsugaru Channel at the age of 73 in 9 hours 58 minutes in 2016
• Pat Gallant-Charette of the USA completed a 19.5 km crossing of the Tsugaru Channel at the age of 61 in 19 hours 36 minutes in 2012
• Toshio Ogawa of Japan completed a 23 km crossing of the Cook Strait at the age of 60 in 11 hours 51 minutes in 2015
• Elizabeth Fry of the USA completed a 23 km crossing of the Cook Strait at the age of 60 in 9 hours 32 minutes in 2019
• Mike Spalding of the USA completed a 42 km crossing of the Molokai Channel at the age of 60 in 15 hours 15 minutes in 2007
• Pat Gallant-Charette of the USA completed a 42 km crossing of the Molokai Channel at the age of 66 in 23 hours 54 minutes in 2017
• Andrew Keay of Australia completed a 35 km crossing of the North Channel at the age of 60 years and 12 days in 14 hours 30 minutes in July 2022
• Pat Gallant-Charette of the USA completed a 35 km crossing of the North Channel at the age of 65 years and 204 days in 14 hours 22 minutes in 2016
• Dr. Euler Konrad Paul Herbet of Germany completed a 14.4 km crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar at the age of 74 in 4 hours 9 minutes in 2009
• Maria del Rosario Tomasena Alzuni of Spain completed a 14.4 km crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar at the age of 77 in 6 hours 23 minutes in 2023
• Pat Marzulli of the USA completed a 32.3 km crossing of the Catalina Channel at the age of 69 years and 312 days in 15 hours 29 minutes in 2018
• Carol Schumacher Hayden of the USA completed a 32.3 km crossing of the Catalina Channel at the age of 66 years and 59 days in 15 hours 2 minutes in 2016
• Dr. Otto Thaning of South Africa completed a 7.5 km crossing from Robben Island to Cape Town at the age of 80 in 2 hours 52 minutes in 2021 (see below with Roger Finch, Lewis Pugh, and Martin Goodman)

The future looks bright(er), especially the older Pat gets.

© 2023 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

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