Jaring Timmerman, The Oldest Masters Swimmer, Passes Away At 105

Jaring Timmerman, the worlds oldest masters swimmer, passed away Wednesday night in his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba at the age of 105.

Timmerman’s longevity in the sport has been one of the greatest showings of perseverance. Timmerman leaves behind four world records in the 100-104 year-old masters age category, and stands solely responsible for the creation of the 105-109 age-group in masters swimming.

Competing competitively for the first time at the age of 78, Timmerman showed that he could compete with some of the top masters swimmers in the world.

Timmerman would go on to set 23 Canadian national records, seven of which he set in the 85-89 age-group, four of which were in the 90-94 age-group, eight of which were in the 95-99 age-group and four which were in the 100-104 age-group.

It wouldn’t be until later in his career that Timmerman would set his first world record at the age of 100 in April of 2009. There he set records in the 50 free, 50 back, 100 free, and 100 backstroke on the same day.

Both his backstroke records have since been broken, but Timmerman still holds the world records in the 50 and 100 freestyles. In the 50, Timmerman broke it twice that day first swimming a 1:26.05 and following up that performance with a 1:16.92.

He bettered his 3:03.48 world record mark in the 100 freestyle about a month later to set the current world record which now stands at 3:02.22.

This past January, just shy of his 105th birthday, Timmerman swam in his last race setting master world records in the 50 free and 50 back in the newly created 105-109 age-group category. Timmerman swam a 2:52.48 in the 50 free and a 3:09.55 in the 50 back respectively.

Timmerman passed away at the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg last night, and is survived by two sons and a daughter.

We at Swimswam give our condolences to the friends and family of Jaring Timmerman and thank him for teaching the true meaning of perserverance and proving that age is just a number