MASTERS swimmer Hanna Wassenaar added five more gold medals to her already glittering collection at this year’s New Zealand Masters Games – a stunning achievement for the sprightly 82-year-old who could swim before she could walk.
Competing in the 80-85 years bracket, Wassenaar claimed victory in the 25m, 50m and 100m breaststroke, along with the 50m and 100m freestyle.
With roughly 100 medals already to her name, her performance further cements her legacy in the Masters swimming community.
The Cleveland resident credits her success to consistency and community.
“The motto is friendship, fitness and fun,” she said.
“This competition has given me a fantastic lifestyle, travelling all around Australia and overseas.
“I have competed in Holland, Budapest and Italy and this has given me the wonderful opportunity to meet people from all over while maintaining my fitness.”
Wassenaar trains three times a week for an hour at Brisbane’s Chandler pool with the Brisbane Southside Masters – although currently she’s sidelined by injury.
Instead of training for the next event, she has three months out of the pool with a broken rib.
But for Wassenaar, hardship is nothing new.
Born in 1942 in a Japanese POW camp in Indonesia, she survived cholera and rickets brought on by malnutrition, leaving her with bowed legs and unable to walk.
Her father, Gerben Wassenaar, was imprisoned in Singapore and Japan, where he worked in a zinc mine for four years.
After the war, the family relocated to Holland, where her father took her swimming, hoping to build enough strength for her to walk.
“I started to walk at age six or seven,” Wassenaar said.
“And swimming became the mainstay of my life.
“My father understood what to do and the importance of being fit.
“I have maintained that attitude all of my life.”
To this day, Wassenaar dedicates her 100m breaststroke races to her father.
“I always dedicated the 100m breaststroke wins to her father’s memory, a testament to his perseverance,” she said.
Although she has no memory of the camp, she knows how rare it was to survive.
Wassenaar also reflected on what Anzac Day means to her.
“Indirectly, these soldiers brought our release,” she said.
Swimming, she believes, has been the key to her health and resilience throughout her life.
“It was my saving grace,” she said.
“I swam in high school in New Zealand and became a swimming teacher. I came here in 1983.”
In 2015, Wassenaar fulfilled a personal mission – visiting the place where her father was once held captive.
“It had been my goal to mark the 70 years since his release,” she said.
“Armed with his small diary, I stood with an interpreter, a priest, counsellor and the son of one of the guards where the men had suffered those frightful years.
“It was an emotional experience.”
