April 2024 Athlete of the Month
By Del Moon, NSGA PR Specialist
Susan Ingraham, 64
San Antonio, Texas
Susan Ingraham makes waves in the pool in more ways than one. The sleek elite Texas swimmer has stacked up medals and accolades since she returned to competitive swimming 21 years ago after a long break. However, she is equally an innovative and passionate teacher who is sacrificing some of her personal training time to coach all ages, especially seniors.
She says it’s worth it.
“People say I’m an inspiration, but I think it’s the other way around,” the nearly 65-year-old says. “I coach masters swimmers in the morning and teach kids to swim the afternoons. I also hold clinics and help stroke victims and amputees adapt to do the kind of exercise they can do and love. The seniors are special to me because I see people in their 80s, 90s, even 100 years old still going for it. It is just so inspiring to know that it’s part of my future I can look forward to.”
Elite athletes do not always make for expert coaches. Susan helps her students “get it” through effective communication and found unusual ways to teach. “It’s hard to get feedback in swimming. When you’re breathing left you have no idea what your right arm is doing,” she explains. “So I place mirrors made out of polished aluminum sheets on the pool bottom so they can see what they are doing as they swim over. They can make corrections because now they see themselves.”
Getting Back in the Swim
Susan has already carved an impressive masters competition history, as evidenced by the long list of credits on her US Masters Swimming bio page. Her involvement in Senior Games was a cornerstone of her experience.
When her family moved to San Antonio, Susan became aquatics director for the Jewish Community Center working with swimmers of all ages and abilities. The center also hosts the Texas Senior Games, and she was recruited to chair the swimming events, which she still does today. Susan also created the Masters of South Texas swimming club, which she estimates has brought more than 35 older swimmers into Senior Games.
“I was 40 when I started as aquatics director,” she says. “When I turned 50, I told them it’s my turn now to join in Senior Games. The director, Cathy Pottorf, told me she needed me to do both and stay on as the chair. I do it because I love what it was all about. I totally understand the core emphasis of getting people over 50 to be active.”
The former physical education teacher felt she could be competitive again when she got back into training after two decades. Susan was still pleasantly surprised how quickly her body remembered how to race. She participates in both indoor and open swim masters events here and abroad and is building an impressive National Senior Games career where she is usually on top of the podium.
Susan with fellow National Senior Games swimmer Sara Sievert.
She “only” earned two gold, three silver and one bronze in Pittsburgh at the 2023 National Senior Games presented by Humana, but says it was not unexpected.
“I was at the top of my age group, plus I had been training to swim the Strait of Gibraltar for a couple of years,” she explains. “My emphasis was on long distance swims, and I was working on the muscles that help with endurance. So it took a good nine months to get my speed back.”
Awards are not an obsession in her mind. “If I get up on the award podium, that’s fantastic, but if I don’t that’s OK too,” she shares. “To me, it’s always about my friends and enjoying where I go. It’s not all about winning.”
Born to Be in the Water
Susan learned to love water growing up on California beaches and took swimming lessons largely to do it with her young friends. “Then, when I got to high school I grew up and realized that if I tried and practiced hard, I could get faster,” she recalls. “I was a multi-sport athlete but I really, really enjoyed being in the water.”
Next was a scholarship to the University of Arizona where she became captain of the swim team. It was there Susan met her husband Corky, a football athlete who would later have some time in the pros. After college she left the pool and focused on being a PE teacher, coach and mother of three children. When she dove back in after two decades it was with a different mindset than college. “You would think it was the competition that I missed, but for me it was the practices and the challenges I face every day. I was missing that.”
What keeps her going? “The two things that motivate me most are finding challenging swims and competitions, and then enjoying the destinations where I go to compete,” she says. “This summer I am going to Trinidad, so that’s a motivation for me to swim well. I just want to stay in shape and see where this takes me with my friends.”
