Riding High in Shorts, Coming up Short in Long

27 July 2026

It's around this mid-year mark that Masters swimmers get to see how we fared around the world, with World Aquatics' annual publication of the global Top 10 performances by age group, by event and for both Short (SCM) and Long (SCM) course.

It's always an interesting time:

• Who aged up - into or out of the age group?

• Who got focused and laid down some great swims?

• Who came back to the sport or came out of the woodwork?

• As another year went by, did we "slow down slower" than our compatriots?

I knew I had a strong season with my solid performances in short course meters back in April in Toronto. I felt my focus on fly last fall, which paid off well in Poland and in Sheffield, might translate into strong placements. And, while I have very rarely put focus into long course racing in my Masters "career," I hoped that last summer's concentration on the 400 free would make me worthy of this list (spoiler alert: it didn't). However, there's no live compendium of global swims to track results until this list comes out ... so we wait patiently for half a year or more.

But, before I make it all about me, let me give a shout out to Maia's first appearance on these lists, with an impressive showing from her 200 IM at the Swim England Masters Nationals in Sheffield:

Short Course Meters by the Numbers

It was a solid year, ranking wise, with my fall fly focus paying off:

• 200 fly was my highest ranked swim at #2

• In the 100 fly, I made the Top 10 for the first time ever in this event at #8

• I managed respectable showings in both the 400 free (#4) and 800 free (#5)

  • In the 400, my best ever ranking was #3 in both 2008 and 2009, but those were the glorious full body suit years, so we'll asterisk those.

  • In the 800, my best ever rank was #3 from 2012 when I went 9:02.16, but I'm pretty happy to be only 15 seconds slower 15 years later with my 9:17.18 (0.2% slower per year) even if my ranking fell.

• The 400 SCM IM is an interesting one to look at over the last 5 years

  • 2021 - age 54 - 5:05.11 ranked me 1st (which was my first ever #1 world ranking but I took that with a grain of salt given that it was a COVID year)

  • 2022 - age 55 - 5:02.33 ranked me 2nd

  • 2023 - age 56 - 5:08.85 ranked me 6th

  • 2024 - age 57 - 5:06.48 ranked me 1st

  • 2025 - age 58 - 5:02.46 ranked me 3rd

• The 400 IM is my most consistent performance - officially ranking in the Top 10 in 13 of the last 21 years (2005 to 2025), with a couple of caveats

  • The times I swam in Canada in "Masters Swimming of Ontario" events in 2019 and 2020 did not get reported to FINA/World Aquatics, but my results would have been 9th (5:07.21) and 5th (5:03.80), respectively

  • It seems like I had an unwritten plan to not race this event every four years as I just didn't swim it in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018

  • The only year I swam it and didn't record a Top 10 time (including those 2019 and 2020 unreported times) was 2009. I distinctly remember that swim - it was at the first ever incarnation of the Rowdy Gaines Masters Classic in Orlando and I only swam the 400 IM as a shameless extra event I just cruised to ensure I got the sweet backpack high point award, a pack that remains my go-to competition bag almost twenty years later:

Long Course Meters by the Numbers

I have had a love-hate relationship with the long course pool pretty much my entire swimming career. On the love side, once I get into training shape for long course, I much prefer it for training. On the hate side, I can think of only four years - 1983, 1988, 2011 and 2012 - when I felt like I was able to race well in long course.

The comparative numbers from 2025 prove out that I have room to improve my long course racing:

• I did focus in the summer of 2025 on 3 of the core events I raced well in SCM - the 400 free, 800 free and 400 IM - but only ranked in two of those: 5th in the 400 IM and 9th in the 800 free

• When using a trusted time converter, my LCM performances are well off my converted SCM times:

  • 400 free = SCM coverts to 4:30.99, but was 4:39.55 (3.2% slower)

  • 800 free = SCM coverts to 8:28.48, but was 9:45.67 (3.0% slower)

  • 400 IM = SCM coverts to 5:13.76, but was 5:17.77 (1.3% slower)

These data reinforce what I already began to do back in March, when I began training first for this year's European Masters Championships and a much longer training campaign for next year's World Masters Championships in Budapest ... when I'll be the "young guy" in my 60-64 age group!

A final interesting note from 2025 - I got to show up representing both Canada and Great Britain.