Just days after Summer McIntosh, Canada's teenage swimming phenom, gave a masterful showing at the 2025 World Aquatic Championships in Singapore, Chris Daniel took his spot on the pool deck for the World Masters Aquatic Championships.
As he readied himself for his race, Daniel, who turned 65 earlier this year, pushed aside a sliver of self-doubt. A motivation to prove something that powered him from Cochrane to Singapore, and it would win him this race.
Beside Daniel in lane one was the world number one, a former captain of the Canadian national swim team who had set numerous time records in almost every race that Daniel would be competing in. Daniel had his game pan. He would start off strong with powerful strokes and hope his competition would die off.
At the starters mark the swimmers dove head first. Just before Daniel got to the wall he saw that he had passed the world number one, who had gotten off to a half length start. Occasionally he’d glance for where the other swimmers were, but he couldn’t see them. Then he reached the end wall, and the race was over.
Daniel spent a total of 23 days in Southeast Asia, from early to mid-August. Of the 12 days he spent in Singapore, four of them he spent in the pool competition in five different events. At the World Masters Aquatic Championships, held typically every two years, swimmers 25 years and older compete against their age groups in different aquatic events.
It was Daniel's first time competing on the international stage, and aside from putting up personal bests or collecting hardware and podium finishes, he had something much more personal to prove.
About three or four years ago, Daniel read "Younger Next Year," a book by Chris Crowley and Dr. Henry S. Lodge that argues that the natural period of decay that all humans experience as they age can be flatlined-- that the experience of aging can be slowed with an intensive focus on improving your physical health.
“We just assume that we decay,” said Daniel. “But you can flatline that descent, you don’t need to decay, you don’t have to accept that, you can actually decline very marginally year over year. I thought that it made sense, that’s where this whole thing started.”
An athlete all his life, Daniel believed that with enough training he could slow his aging process. With his swim times he had a baseline of what his physical health used to look like. He had times from swim meets that he competed in 20 years ago and he wanted to see if he could match, or even improve upon, those times.
After swimming laps in the pool he would hop out and head to the gym to life weights. Month after month he followed the same routine, attending and competing in swim meets until Nationals in May when it was recommended to him that he sign up for a long course swim meet in Edmonton. It was at that meet when he was again recommended to go to Singapore for the World Masters Aquatic Championships.
Many of the swimmers at the meet in Singapore are at the top of their field. Most are Olympians, World Champions, NCAA champions, and Hall of Famers. When Daniel arrived at the pool, he had a serious bout of self doubt. Unlike a lot of the competition, Daniel doesn’t have a serious swim pedigree. Indeed, he’s never left Canada for a swim meet in his life.
In his first event, the 100 metre freestyle, Daniel lined up against Dan Thompson, a Canadian and world record holder in the 100 metre and 50 metre butterfly, and the 100 metre freestyle who, if not for the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics on Moscow, would have captained Canada’s swim team against the Soviets.
‘What am I doing here?’ Daniel thought at the time. ‘I don’t belong here.’
“I figured I’d just go out hard and keep an eye out and whoever is the fittest guy is going to win it in the last 50 metres,” Daniel told The Eagle, recounting one of the races against Thompson.
“I felt good. If I go out hard I might die, but I won’t die as much as them. I believed in my training and if this comes down to fitness, I should be able to win,” he said. “That’s how that race unfolded and that’s how all my races unfolded.”
In five races, Daniel won four gold medals in the 100 metre freestyle; 200 metre freestyle; 100 metre butterfly; and 200 metre individual medley, and claimed the silver in the 50 metre butterfly. And, at 65, Daniel finished his races with next to identical times as to that when he was 45 years old.
“I was not expecting to win at all, but to win was icing on the cake,” Daniel said. “I had been training for the better part of six weeks and it was pretty satisfying to know that you could achieve something pretty cool when you get older. You can turn back the clock.”
