Pooling her talents

Mike Sciacca

Rita Simonton said that time wasn’t on her side at the recent World

Championships Masters Swim Meet in Riccione, Italy.

But the Huntington Harbour resident’s timing was everything.

With kicks and turns worthy of a champion, Simonton swam to five

first-place finishes in her age group.

The five gold medals certainly is a lot of bling for the

86-year-old.

“My times weren’t the greatest, but they were enough,” Simonton

said. “It’s not that I’m so fast, it’s just that I hang in there.”

Simonton was in Italy for three weeks and had two days of practice

time before competing at the World Championships.

She won the 50 meter, 100 meter, 200 meter, 400 meter and 800

meter freestyle events in the 85 to 89 age group in a week-long meet

that featured competition in both an indoor and outdoor pool.

Her previous record for gold medals at a World Championships was

four, set in 1988 in Denmark, she said.

The World Championships attracted athletes from around the globe,

with 6,349 athletes competing in swimming events in various age

groups, Simonton said.

There were more than 1,000 swimmers competing in an open water

competition in the Adriatic Sea, 305 synchronized swimmers, 200

divers and more than 1,000 water polo players, who competed in the

nearby town of San Marino.

But Simonton, who competed in past World Championships in Munich

in 2000, Canada in 1994 and Denmark in 1988, stuck to the swim event

she knows best: freestyle.

She is the world record holder in 11 freestyle age group events.

“I had a great time in Italy,” Simonton said. “Of course, winning

five gold medals always makes the experience even more fun.”

Simonton swims and works out regularly at the Golden West College

pool, as well as at Los Caballeros Sports Club in Fountain Valley,

with workouts routinely beginning at 6:30 a.m.

She credits her coaching mentors at the college for her swimming

success.

“They are very kind to me at Golden West and give me such good

advice,” she said. “Ken Hamdorf taught me about pacing, and Rick

Graves kind of challenges me. They’ve taught me a lot there.”

Graves coaches with the Golden West Swim Club.

“It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to work with Rita on a

regular basis,” Graves said. “She’s tremendously motivational and

inspirational ... not only to myself, but to all of those who swim

with her, from the kids all the way up to the adults.

“When I tell people that she is a world record-holder in the 85 to

90 age category, they are absolutely amazed that she’s that old. I

feel lucky that she allows me to call her, her coach.”

Simonton is still going strong in the pool, nearly 80 years after

she learned to swim with a pair of water wings in her native Rhode

Island.

“Boy, I didn’t want to give them up,” she said of the water wings.

“I used to swim back and forth under a bridge on a lake where my

grandfather lived in Sterling, Conn. I have fond memories of those

times.”

Simonton said it was her father, Ovilard Gadbois, who taught her

competitive swimming.

“He used to challenge me all the time,” recalled Simonton, who was

named one of the Masters Swimmers of the Year nationwide in 2003. “He

didn’t give anything to me. In fact, every race I won against him, I

had to earn it. I guess getting that competitive edge all those years

ago has paid off for me later in life.”