The history of competitive water sports in southern Africa

Tim Shead - Masters World Champion

World Champion swimmer Tim Shead (55), of Constantia, Cape Town is creating waves having just returned from Spain where he broke no less than three World records and seven South African records in the Spanish Masters Swimming Championships, which was held in Madrid between 26 and 28 January 2007. Shead competed along with 1400 competitors from across the globe, some as young as 22 years of age, in no less than four swimming events, to glide to victory in his age group.

Since the first of January 2007, he has already broken three World records, ten South African records and achieved six World Number One rankings in 6 different events.

Shead has now broken 12 World Swimming Records and holds the unofficial title of World’s Fastest All Round Swimmer over the age of 50, and has done so for the past five years. Even more impressive is the fact that he has improved his speed over this period and this year smashed the existing world record by an incredible 2.4 seconds in the 100 metre Individual Medley and in doing so went faster than his still untouched world record in the 50-54 age group set 5 years ago

However, this achievement is merely the start of an ambitious year-long quest to accomplish a goal never before realized by any swimmer of any age in the history of the sport of swimming; namely to compete and rank in the ‘Top 10’ worldwide in every swimming event in existence. This comprises each and every different stroke at every distance ranging from the 50 metre sprint to the 1500 metre distance event – a total of 36 events. To date Tim has competed in seven events this year, breaking three world records and ranking No 1 worldwide in 6 events.

Given these extraordinary achievements while training only 4-5 hours a week, you may well ask what the secret of this phenomenal athlete’s success is at such a mature age?

According to Shead, his success started at the age of 38, when, after many years of trying and failing - and certainly falling far short of any world rankings or records - he cognited on the link between proper nutrition and its indelible impact upon mental and physical performance. He broke his first World Record in 1997 at 45 years of age. Long dreaming of attaining the status of one the world’s elite swimmers, he had all but given up by the age of 24, subsisting on fast foods, sandwiches and soft drinks while training up to 5 hours a day and competing in swimming competitions. This realization was to be a turning point in his life, and the beginning of a personal and professional interest in the Health food industry. He cites as the key to his phenomenal late-life success in the sphere of championship swimming, the critical intake of the correct combination of foods, supported by the right nutritional supplementation.

Shead hails from the USA originally, where he graduated from the prestigious Wharton School of Business in 1974. Already a competitive swimmer at age 12, he found his chosen vocation as early as 1976, when he started working as a Swimming coach, and cites this as his ‘first love’. His coaching success led to his team being ranked among the top 15 in the country, and his being awarded the title of US National Swim Coach in 1979, a designation he held up until his retirement from coaching in 1983. He was also one of the youngest US Swimming Coaches ever to receive the prestigious Certificate of Excellence for Coaching Achievement.- an award he won 3 times. Recognizing his dedication and passion to the sport of Swimming, he was elected Chairman of the Athlete’s Representative Committee by his peers and was instrumental in gaining professional recognition for this sport in his country of birth.

He moved to South Africa in 1984 with his South African wife and family, and started competing in Masters Swimming. Not forsaking his first love, Tim coached water polo at Bishops and was Chairman of Western Province School’s water polo until 2005. He also started up a Nutritional foods company and currently retains ownership in two Health Food companies, Advanced Health Food cc, a retail supplier of Health food supplements under the brand ‘Ultima’ and a new Direct Marketing Health food company called P2Life.

Tim firmly ascribes his successes and recent world records to supplementing his diet with two of his own products, a nutritional milkshake which he has taken religiously for 23 years now, found under 2 names; Ultima "1" and P2Life "Nutriboost", and Adaptogens - the most beneficial of all plant nutrients - which he has been taking for the past 10 years.

In peak physical condition and brimming over with energy, Tim Shead is the image of health and vitality personified, and certainly the perfect ambassador for longevity. As he so aptly quips: ‘Age is only a number, quality of life is everything’.

Giving lie to the accepted adage that ageing gracefully necessitates a retreat from physical exertion, he is gearing up for a physical challenge that would make younger men quake in their boots.

His philosophy is simple, if decidedly profound: ‘The human body is amazing and capable of monumental achievements. Look after it, nourish it properly and you will be astonished at how good you can feel and what you are able to accomplish.’

And this is a message which he would like to bring home to each and every talented, young aspiring athlete who would like to take the professional route to realizing his or her dream.

He is certainly living testimony to his own ideology!